Conor McGregor’s coach has explained the fighter’s late arrival in Las Vegas for Saturday’s clash with Max Holloway, taking responsibility for the delay.
This weekend, McGregor will fight Holloway in the welterweight main event of UFC 329, 13 years after outpointing the Hawaiian at featherweight.
McGregor has not fought in five years, having suffered a broken leg in his last bout, and having withdrawn from a 2024 fight with Michael Chandler due to a broken toe, which he sustained two weeks beforehand.
As such, fans are hesitant to get too excited for the Holloway rematch until it actually begins, and there was nervousness among the fandom when McGregor was absent from the first two episodes of UFC Embedded this week. The YouTube series typically follows fighters in the days before a major event.
However, McGregor’s longtime coach John Kavanagh has offered an explanation for McGregor’s absence, telling journalist Ariel Helwani: “I’ll apologise. I maybe had a part in him being a bit late arriving.
“We were originally gonna come in on Friday, and we were up in Newport [in Rhode Island], and it’s so beautiful, and I might have suggested, ‘Why don’t we stay here another few days, and just go in at the last moment,’ because the weather was... you know, the climate’s perfect.
“We got a few extra training sessions done over that weekend, which I feel – if we would have come into Vegas – we may not have. So, I think it worked out well, because the weather here [in Vegas] is [much hotter].”
Coach John Kavanagh reveals the reason behind Conor McGregor's later-than-usual arrival for fight week:
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 8, 2026
"I'll apologize. I maybe had a part in him being a bit late arriving because we were originally going to come in on Friday.
We're up in Newport, and it's so beautiful. I… pic.twitter.com/fHeV9PY8Q2
Against Holloway, 34, McGregor is seeking his first UFC win since 2020, when he stopped Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds. In 2021, McGregor faced old rival Dustin Poirier twice, suffering a knockout loss and then a TKO defeat – courtesy of his broken leg.
At UFC 329, McGregor will also fight for the first time since a civil jury found that he had raped a woman in Dublin in 2018. McGregor appealed the verdict of that 2024 court case, but to no avail.
McGregor also recorded three drug-test whereabouts failures in 2024, leading him to receive an 18-month ban. It was only announced in October 2025 but was backdated to September 2024, making him eligible to return this March.
