Conor McGregor is targeting a third clash with Max Holloway as he looks ahead to his final UFC fight.

In July, McGregor returned to the Octagon after five years away, only to suffer a first-round injury – just as he had done in his previous outing.

This time, it was a torn ACL and meniscus against Holloway at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena, five years after the Irishman suffered a broken leg against Dustin Poirier in the same venue.

Both injuries meant TKO defeats for McGregor, who has one fight left on his UFC contract and is keen on a third fight with Holloway, whom he outpointed in 2013.

“It has to be Holloway,” McGregor said at a press conference on Saturday, after a show by Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, of which he is a part-owner.

“Just do the f***ing thing again, just do the thing again. The guy didn’t engage once. He’s the one that called for the stoppage in the fight. He said, ‘Ref, ref!’

“He’s the one stopping the fight. Imagine I just said, ‘Yay!’ and jumped the fence. ‘I won!’ He doesn’t want to f***ing fight. On the one leg, he wasn’t coming near me.”

McGregor, 38, injured himself in the opening exchange of the fight, running at Holloway and jumping at the Hawaiian, only to fall to the canvas. McGregor fell twice more and stood up each time, but ultimately he was left clutching his leg, and the fight was waved off.

Despite McGregor’s claims, Holloway, 34, did throw strikes at a downed McGregor throughout the bout, which lasted 69 seconds.

“So shocking and so heartbreaking to me,” McGregor continued on Saturday, “and I’m still f***ing dealing with it. It has to be Holloway. Just f***ing dust it off, re-do it.

“I’m on my way back. What’s it now, November? Three months I’m off of surgery. I done this injury before and returned within nine months. So, nine months is pre-summer.

“I just want to go again and again. Now, Holloway might be a jackass. Something might happen, I don’t know. But a fighter that fights me, put some respect on my name.

“If you’re not a world-champion fighter, if you’ve not got world accolades to your name, don’t utter my f***ing name. If you’re a national champion, if you’re a f***ing regional champion, if you’ve done f*** all but got a few likes [on social media], go f*** yourself. Don’t mention my f***ing name. I said a world-calibre fighter.”

McGregor is a former featherweight and lightweight champion, the first simultaneous two-weight champion in UFC history. Holloway is a former featherweight champion who has also fought at lightweight. The Hawaiian fought McGregor up at welterweight, however, where “Notorious” has competed several times.

McGregor’s bout with Holloway was not only his first since he sustained a broken leg, but also his first since a civil jury found him liable for sexual assault. That 2024 verdict related to an alleged incident in 2018, and although McGregor continues to deny all allegations against him, his appeal against the verdict failed in 2025.