UFC News: Current Champion reveals why he still respects Conor McGregor despite recent struggles
Conor McGregor is unarguably the most polarizing fighter in the world of MMA. The hate towards the Irishman has increased tremendously ever since he got into a string of legal and disciplinary troubles at the beginning of 2019.
However, Max Holloway hasn't lost his respect for the Notorious One. While speaking to MMA Fighting, the UFC Featherweight Champion was supportive of McGregor; he stated that mistakes happen, and that the former UFC Double Champion is human after all.
Holloway explained how McGregor understood the business aspect of selling fights and how fighters sometimes tend to cross the line while promoting events. He also stressed on how McGregor never went overboard.
“The way he talks is business, and business is business. I understand that point of business with someone. There might be a point where you cross a line where it’s not business anymore and it gets personal but he never did that. He never crossed that line. That’s what I respect about him."
“He’s human just like all of us. He had some bad, unfortunate events happen. He was just doing the wrong stuff at the wrong time and it sucks but dude is human. That’s just it.”
Holloway also expressed gratitude towards McGregor for being one of the first fighters who reached out to him and asked about his well-being back when Blessed was forced to pull out of a few fights in 2018 due to injuries.
“[Conor] was the first one that asked me, that tweeted how everybody was saying this stuff [about the fight being cancelled] but nobody was asking about how I was when the whole [Khabib Nurmagomedov] thing happened. When the July thing happened [with Brian Ortega] and then even walking out to the Frankie Edgar fight, he showed me support. He has a heart.” H/t Credit: MMAFighting
Holloway is currently preparing to defend the UFC Featherweight strap against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 245 on 15 December.
McGregor, in the meantime, will also be gearing up for his UFC return that is scheduled to take place at UFC 246 on 18 January. He will face Donald Cerrone in a Welterweight fight.
It's interesting to note that Holloway's last loss at Featherweight came at the hands of McGregor. Here's a highlights video of McGregor vs Holloway: