By Philip O’Connor
May 16 (Reuters) – Former two-weight mixed martial arts world champion Conor McGregor will make his long-awaited return to the UFC octagon on July 11 in Las Vegas, UFC President Dana White announced during Saturday night’s UFC card.
The Irishman, who has not fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021, faces Hawaiian Max Holloway in the main event at UFC 329 in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with the contest taking place at lightweight/welterweight.
With his flashy striking style and penchant for entertaining and offensive trash-talk, McGregor debuted with the promotion in 2013 and quickly became the biggest star in the sport, adding the UFC lightweight title to his featherweight crown in 2016 to become the first athlete to hold two UFC belts simultaneously.
McGregor’s brash manner proved a huge hit with fans around the world, and he was instrumental in helping the sport of MMA, which was once famously derided by U.S. Senator John McCain as “human cockfighting”, to gain mainstream acceptance.
A boxing match against Floyd Mayweather in August 2017 made the Irishman tens of millions of dollars, but he has only fought four times in MMA since beating Eddie Alvarez to claim the lightweight crown on November 12, 2016, losing three of those bouts.
McGregor, 37, was slated to meet former Bellator champion Michael Chandler in June 2024, but that was cancelled after he suffered a broken toe in training.
Later that year a jury in an Irish civil court found him liable for the rape of Nikita Hand in 2018.
In October 2025, he accepted an 18-month ban for “whereabouts failures” after he missed three attempts by Combat Sports Anti-Doping to collect biological samples from him in 2024. The ban was back-dated and expired in March.
If McGregor does fight Holloway on July 11, it will be five years and one day since his broken leg against Poirier.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Ken Ferris and William Mallard)
