Conor McGregor’s coach has said they were training to fight Carlos Prates, before the UFC named Max Holloway as McGregor’s opponent for this weekend.
On Saturday, McGregor will headline against Holloway at UFC 329 in Las Vegas, 13 years after outpointing the Hawaiian in their previous clash.
While that first fight took place at featherweight, where both men eventually became world champions, their rematch will play out at welterweight – where McGregor has experience, but Holloway does not.
There were briefly rumours that McGregor could instead face Prates, a natural welterweight who is 7-1 in the UFC with seven knockout wins.
“As it’s out there now, we had Prates as the first opponent,” McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, told journalist Ariel Helwani on Wednesday.
“‘Okay, we’re fighting Prates, let’s get going.’ I just never gave myself the time to think about: ‘Will it happen?’
“[I thought it would be] tough, I knew it was gonna be a hard fight, but you know, you keep your confidence. You start game-planning, you start training, you start studying.
“But it didn’t seem it was all that long into it, and then suddenly it was Max. Whoever it is, it is – as Conor would say.”
At the time that the Prates bout was rumoured, the Brazilian fighter said: “To be honest, I think the fight is hard to happen, because Conor McGregor is five years without any fight, retired [from] MMA, and after five years he wouldn’t [come] back to fight the most entertaining welterweight in the world.
John Kavanagh says Conor McGregor began initial preparations for Carlos Prates after receiving the UFC's offer:
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 8, 2026
"Prates was the first opponent... I knew it was going to be a hard fight, but you keep your confidence, you start game planning, you start training, you start… pic.twitter.com/BZsAQTJxdB
“Nothing against him, you know? But everybody knows – I know, he knows – I would hurt him bad. I would knock him out, so I don’t think it’s the right way to make the comeback of a huge superstar like him.”
McGregor has not fought in five years, having suffered a broken leg in his last bout, a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier.
In 2024, the Irishman was due to return against Michael Chandler, but the fight was cancelled on two weeks’ notice when McGregor suffered a broken toe.
Later that year, a civil jury found that McGregor had raped a woman in Dublin in 2018. McGregor appealed the result, but to no avail.
McGregor, 37, 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.
