UFC superstar Conor McGregor promised to be a wiser version of himself when he fights Max Holloway at UFC 329.

McGregor has not fought since UFC 264 in July 2021, when he suffered a broken leg and lost via TKO to Dustin Poirier in their trilogy match. He was supposed to come back to fight Michael Chandler in 2024 at UFC 303 after the two rivals coached against each other on “The Ultimate Fighter,” but the fight never ended up happening after McGregor pulled out with an injury. Two years later, McGregor is finally healthy, and he will take on Holloway at UFC 329.

Conor McGregor Promises to Be Wiser at UFC 329

One of the questions that fans have about McGregor in his comeback is how he will react to returning from a five-year layoff after suffering a broken leg. According to McGregor in an interview with Mac Energy, he will bring a smarter, wiser version of himself to the Octagon when he takes on Holloway at UFC 329, as he now knows that he needs a backup game plan in the event he gets injured in his fights.

“Now as I have become a lot more experienced in the game I actually work backwards towards the perfect scenario. So I have had a limb break inside the octagon, and now I must have an answer to that. I have the perfect scenario, you knock them out with the big backhand, the crowd roars. But then I have the worst case scenario, the shoulder dislocates midway through the first round, what’s my mechanisms?” McGregor said (via LowKickMMA).

“The knee dislocates in the first round, what’s my movements, my reactions? Do I switch the stance or go to my back? I have a whole selection of responses to the worst case scenarios. Not that I sit and dwell on them, or overthink them, but I just have them. So if the ankle goes, if the knee goes, if the shoulder goes, what’s my response? Because the fight’s not over… If you have a maneuver, you can outlast and you can survive in there and you can work towards the victory.

“I have found as I have gotten more experience in the fight game to work my way backwards from the worst case scenario, to the best case scenario. And then focus and prepare for the best case scenario. That’s where I’m at right now. I have every situation that may occur and my answers to them.”

Max Holloway Heavily Favored to Beat Conor McGregor

The current betting odds for this fight see Holloway as a -315 favorite and McGregor as a +265 underdog. Since the betting odds opened a few weeks ago, there has been some back-and-forth betting action, as Holloway at one point became a huge favorite before the line came back down to Earth.

Most likely, Holloway will enter this fight as the clear favorite, but due to McGregor’s popularity and the fact that he is saying everything right to the media, there will certainly be backers taking a bite on him as the underdog when these two rivals meet at UFC 329 on July 11 in Las Vegas.