06/02/2026
How is McGregor looking less than 2 months removed from his HUGE return against Max Holloway? The fight itself is doing numbers just off the name alone, but there’s a real conversation happening about whether the guy we’re getting in that cage is anywhere close to the one we remember. Since bulking up and moving to welterweight, McGregor has looked a bit stiffer and slower — and his cardio raised questions too, even back in the Poirier fights. That’s not a hot take, that’s just what people saw. The last time he looked genuinely sharp was a 40-second demolition of Cerrone. The physique stuff is where it gets interesting though. The transformation has been pretty remarkable visually — the upper chest, shoulders, and traps have all added serious size, giving him that broader, more powerful look. But anyone who’s followed MMA long enough knows that looking huge in training photos and actually moving well inside the cage are two very different things. Robert Whittaker put it well — if you get peak Conor, massive and feeling himself at 170 pounds, that’s a nightmare for anyone. But nobody really knows what that looks like yet after this long away. McGregor himself is promising he’s evolved and will be better than ever, which is exactly the kind of thing you’d expect him to say. Whether the body backs it up on July 11 is the only thing that actually matters now.
