UFC 329 fight card: Five biggest storylines to follow in the return of Conor McGregor
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- Conor McGregor (37) returns after a five-year layoff and a badly broken leg from his 2021 trilogy loss to Dustin Poirier, headlining UFC 329 against Max Holloway (34) in a 170-pound rematch 13 years after their first meeting.
- Justin Gaethje (37) stunned previously unbeaten Ilia Topuria at the UFC's Freedom 250 event at the White House in June, scrambling the lightweight title picture and positioning the McGregor-Holloway winner as a likely No. 1 contender.
- Paddy Pimblett (31) accepts a quick turnaround just over four months after his first UFC loss to Gaethje at UFC 324, facing French contender Benoit Saint-Denis, who rides a four-fight stoppage streak.
- Robert Whittaker (35) jumps to light heavyweight after consecutive defeats, debuting at 205 pounds against Nikita Krylov in a division whose champion Carlos Ulberg is shelved for 2026 with a torn ACL.
- Gable Steveson (26), a 2020 Olympic gold medalist and two-time NCAA Division I champion, makes his UFC heavyweight debut as a 3-0 pro with three first-round knockouts, mentored and coached by Jon Jones.
Why it matters: Gaethje's White House upset of Topuria turned UFC 329's main event into a de facto lightweight title eliminator, so a single McGregor win could fast-track a 37-year-old coming off a broken leg and one UFC win in a decade into a championship fight. Steveson's debut is the card's true curveball — an Olympic champion with three first-round KOs and a Jon Jones coaching pipeline entering a heavyweight division that just lost its reigning champion to injury.
