Levi Rothermund
Thirteen years after their first meeting, the numbers tell a story of two very different careers colliding at a brand-new weight.
Conor McGregor and Max Holloway meet for the second time in their careers when they headline UFC 329 on July 11, 2026 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Their head-to-head sits at 1-0 in McGregor’s favor, but the number that matters most might be thirteen — as in the number of years since that first fight, and everything that’s changed for both men since.
McGregor 1, Holloway 0
Their sole prior meeting came at UFC 178 in August 2013, at featherweight, where McGregor won by decision. It’s the only result on the ledger between these two, and it happened before either man had built the resume that now defines his career. That single result is the entire head-to-head history heading into Saturday — everything else in this matchup is projection, style analysis, and thirteen years of accumulated evidence about who each fighter has become.
Why This Rematch Looks Nothing Like the Original
This isn’t a title fight, and it isn’t even contested at the same weight as their first encounter. UFC 329 has the pair meeting at welterweight, a jump up from the featherweight bout that started it all. McGregor enters at 22-6-0, Holloway at 27-9-0, and the gap in activity between them tells its own story: Holloway has been the far busier, more consistent operator since 2013, while McGregor has built a higher-profile résumé through fewer, bigger moments.
Saturday marks McGregor’s first appearance in five years, almost to the day, as he chases his first win since beating Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone at UFC 254. He remains the first fighter to hold “champ-champ” status in UFC history, a status forged during an extraordinary three-and-a-half-year stretch from his April 2013 debut through his November 2016 win over Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title. But he returns from a gruesome leg injury and a prolonged layoff carrying more uncertainty than at any previous point in his career.
Holloway, by contrast, is fighting for the second time this year, returning to Las Vegas after dropping a one-sided decision to Charles Oliveira in March, a loss that cost him the BMF title. He’ll be looking for a measure of revenge for that 2013 defeat while steadying his own campaign heading into the back half of the year.
Breaking Down the Numbers Since 2013
The statistical picture since their first meeting favors different fighters depending on what you value. Here’s the head-to-head comparison based on their career numbers heading into UFC 329:
| Metric | McGregor | Holloway |
|---|---|---|
| Record since 2013 | 22-6 | 27-9 |
| Reach | 74 inches | 69 inches |
| Significant strikes landed/min | 5.32 | 6.91 |
| Significant strike accuracy | 56.40% | 49.91% |
| Takedown average | 0.67 | 0.23 |
| Takedown accuracy | 55.56% | 53.33% |
McGregor holds the reach advantage, the sharper accuracy numbers, and the clear edge in the wrestling department. Holloway counters with far higher output, throwing and landing at a pace that has defined his style for over a decade.
What the Numbers Suggest About Saturday
The statistical gap lines up with the reputation each man has built. McGregor has been the more efficient, more explosive fighter on a per-minute basis, particularly in striking accuracy — the kind of numbers that reflect a finisher who doesn’t need volume to do damage. Holloway has built his career on the opposite principle: relentless pace and accumulated output that wears opponents down over five rounds. That contrast — clean power versus sustained pressure — has always been the theoretical matchup between these two, and it’s now been tested by thirteen years of separate paths through the sport.
The Unknowns That Make This Fight Impossible to Predict
Plenty of variables complicate any clean read on this fight. McGregor turns 38 next week. He hasn’t competed in half a decade. And the bout is happening at a weight neither man fought at when they first met. Layer in Holloway’s continued activity at the highest level of the sport across the 2010s and into the 2020s, and you have two of the most accomplished fighters of their generation stepping into the Octagon with more questions than historical data can answer.
The Bigger Picture
Whatever happens on Saturday, UFC 329 settles a rivalry that’s been dormant for over a decade while opening an entirely new chapter for both men. For McGregor, it’s a referendum on whether the fighter who once held two belts simultaneously has anything left after the longest absence of his career. For Holloway, it’s a chance to close the book on the first loss of his UFC tenure while building momentum after a difficult start to the year. However the head-to-head reads on Sunday morning, it will shape how both legacies are remembered from here.