2026 UFC event schedule: Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway 2, Islam Makhachev vs. Ian Machado Garry on tap
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- Conor McGregor ends a five-year layoff to headline UFC 329 against Max Holloway, the crown jewel of UFC International Fight Week 2026
- McGregor and Holloway first fought 13 years ago before either held a featherweight title; McGregor won the original meeting and now enters as a significant underdog
- UFC 329's undercard stacks Paddy Pimblett vs. Benoit Saint Denis in a pivotal lightweight clash, former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker's light heavyweight debut, and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson's UFC debut
- Islam Makhachev defends the welterweight title against Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 one month later — Makhachev trained under McGregor's rival Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Garry is a fellow Irishman of McGregor's
- UFC 330 marks the promotion's return to Philadelphia and adds a co-main women's strawweight title fight between champion Mackenzie Dern and Gillian Robertson
Why it matters: McGregor — still UFC's biggest pay-per-view draw despite five years without a fight — is being matched against a Holloway he already beat 13 years ago, betting 2026's flagship event on nostalgia rather than competitive upside. The Makhachev-Garry welterweight title fight threads McGregor's two biggest rivalries (Khabib's lineage and Irish MMA) into the very next pay-per-view, giving UFC a two-month narrative arc that monetizes McGregor's return even though he isn't fighting again until after UFC 330.
