It’s been a while, but he’s finally back! Conor McGregor confirmed the date, and now the excitement is through the roof as we’re only a few days removed from UFC 329 where we will see Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway 2. There’s no arguing that The Notorious is the biggest star UFC has ever had, and it feels good having him in the octagon once again. Conor is a former double champ, and he will have another storied fighter and a former champ in Holloway against him.
Of course, the bout in question is the main event for the evening of 11th of July, with plenty more top fighting coming your way. The co-main event is equally exciting, and it is a fight between Paddy Pimblett and Benoit Saint-Denis. If you’re excited as we are for the upcoming event, and with only a couple of days left till the big showdown, this is an ideal opportunity to check out some of Stake’s UFC 329 picks and predictions, and get ready for a night of fighting. This event is scheduled for the evening of July, 11th, with the venue being T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The Much Anticipated Main Event-McGregor vs. Holloway
Conor McGregor is the man when it comes to MMA fighting. His only flaw was that made a hiatus from fighting that felt like an eternity. Yet, even after a five year absence it is unbelievable just how much hype he generated. Nothing less was expected from the first ever UFC double champion. At one moment in time, Conor held both the featherweight and lightweight titles. What many fans hold against him is that he never once had a title defense. Each time, his belts were tripped due to inactivity.
Back in 2016, McGregor reached the top of the world when he fought Eddie Alvarez, won that bout, and took home the lightweight title. Since then, he has been vastly uninspiring. His only win since then was a win vs. Donald Cerrone. What followed was a defeat in the hands of Dustin Poirier in 2021, a fight that saw the Irishman breaking his leg. After that The Notorious was scheduled to fight Michael Chandler, but that remained only a dream for Chandler as Conor pulled out from the fight due an injury. What followed were five years of teasing, with fans eagerly expecting to see Conor fight again.
The time for Conor McGregor to fight again under the umbrella of UFC has finally come. After a long MMA career that saw him go 22-6, with 10 wins and 4 losses in the UFC, Conor will finally add to his tally, one way or another. The honour to be his adversary, and possibly the biggest purse of his career, has fallen on Max Holloway, and Blessed is more than happy to have the opportunity to take one back from McGregor.
The two fighters have a history between them, but an ancient one. When the two men first fought, Holloway was only 21 years old. It was a bout that Conor was favoured to win, and he duly delivered. Today, the situation is reversed. The McGregor vs Holloway betting odds have tightened steadily since the fight was first announced, and Saturday night will decide whether the market or the fans called it right.
Back in the day, the loss to McGregor served as a true inspiration for Max Holloway as we all witnessed him going on one of the most incredible runs in UFC history, which was only stopped after 14 wins. During that span he also had five title fights. For a while, the featherweight division belonged to Max Holloway and he remembers that feeling all too well. After moving to lightweight, Blessed’s career has been a mixed bag. He has wins against the likes of Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier, but has recently lost his BMF belt to Charles Oliveira. His current MMA record stands at 27-9, and you could argue that never managed to reach the stardom that his Irish colleague has.
With that said, unlike Conor, Max has been an active fighter. He’s been at the top of his game for years, and in top physical shape. At the same time, McGregor, while a superstar in sport and beyond it, hasn’t fought anyone of notice for six years. No one can predict the outcome of this bout with certainty, but the bookmakers have Holloway as a big favourite, while Conor will have the underdog role for maybe the second time in his career. The odds on The Notorious are set at 2.80. Holloway’s win is paid with 1.47 odds.
Just like the bookies, Max Holloway remains confident, in his skill and Conor’ s rust, that he can come out of this bout victorious. He has said as much during his latest interview with Stake, a sports betting company for which Max works as an ambassador. In his exclusive interview with Stake, Holloway brushed off the ‘script’ talk around the fight and said he’s simply preparing for ‘the best Conor McGregor there is.’ The ‘script’ talk revolves around many claims that say that UFC wants Conor to win this bout. Addressing those rumours, Max said: “I mean, at the end of the day, UFC can want anybody to win, they can want anything. But that’s just not the way it goes. I get to go out there and I get to control the narrative ’cause I get to go out there and shut all that down on this guy and and go out there and do what I practice, and what I practice is to get my hand raised, so. We get to find out come Saturday night.”
As you could have guessed, Conor McGregor didn’t remain silent in the build up for this fight. While his generational trash talk was absent, he still threw a few digs Holloway’s way. When faced with Max’s claim that he’s the best boxer in the UFC, Conor said: “The best boxer? You said the best boxer? We’re going to see, we’re going to see now. No. 1 pound for pound featherweight? After I beat you at featherweight, we’re going to see now. You’re not going to lay a glove on me, and even if you do lay a glove on me, I’m going to laugh in your face. It’s another world here against me, and it’s another world at this weight. I’m going to come out of this bout unscathed and in all glory.” Conor wrapped up his appearance with Joe Rogan by concluding that he gives no chances to Holloway, even saying: “Max is my child.” With all of that said we know we’re in for a big showdown. But, as we pointed out earlier, the fun at UFC 329 will end with max and Conor. Before that we will have:
Co-main event: Pimblett vs. Saint-Denis
In a way, Paddy Pimblett has been Conor McGregor’s spiritual successor in the UFC. He has the necessary personality and an exciting fighting style. Because of that he has built up a massive fan base among the fans of MMA, and all of his bouts are filling the stands and have been selling PPVs in the past. Having him and Conor on the same card is already a big win for UFC. Until recently, Paddy the Baddy has been an undefeated fighter, but his aura of invincibility was taken down by none other than Justin Gaethje. It’s no shame losing to Justin, after we saw what he has done to Ilia Topuria, and that’s why Paddy’s wins against Tony Ferguson, King Green, and Michael Chandler are now seen through differ light. With Benoit Saint-Denis a big challenge awaits Paddy. So far he has an 23-4 MMA record, with 7 of those wins, and one defeat coming his way in UFC. He’s known as a man who can finish a fight with 3 submission and 2 KO/TKO wins in his FC career.
Just like Paddy, Saint-Denis is also known as an excellent finisher. The only one of his fights that went the distance was his debut bout. The remaining 11 fights ended with a finish, one way or another. Currently, Saint-Denis has an MMA record of 17-3 with all three of his defeats coming his way in the UFC. With the company he has nine wins, with four submissions and 5 by KO/TKO. Right now, he is seen as the favourite to win his bout against Paddy. The reason lies in the fact that Pimblett is coming off a heavy defeat, while Benoit is on a four win streak. Furthermore, God of War has a better resume as far as his UFC career goes as he recorded wins vs. Dan Hooker, Beneil Dariush, Mauricio Ruffy, and Kyle Prepolec. Some of his biggest defeats came in the hands of seasoned UFC veterans such as Renato Moicano and Dustin Poirier. That’s why Stake has BSD as a favourite vs. Paddy with odds on his win being 1.66. As far as Paddy goes, his win is measured with 2.28 odds.
Despite having a bout of his own, and a co-main event at that, Paddy the Baddy still found time to chime in on the main event and leave a comment on McGregor vs. Holloway bout. Talking about the main event of UFC 329, Paddy stated: “Because it’s at welterweight, I see Conor knocking Max out. Everyone’s counting Conor out. If it goes to the later rounds, yeah, Max will definitely probably start piecing him up on the feet. But because it’s at welterweight, I think Conor, because Charles made Max look smaller at lightweight, so imagine how big Conor is going to look compared to him at welterweight.”
To put it simply, the main event of UFC 329, a fight between Conor McGregor and Max Holloway, is a fight that every major and minor name tied to UFC had to comment on. While the main and co-main event of UFC 329 are going to take all the attention, the rest of the card should not be neglected as it has some more than interesting bouts too.
UFC 329 Full Card & Where to Watch
Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway and Paddy Pimblett vs. Benoit Saint-Denis are a promise of one of the greatest ever UFC events. When you learn about the rest of the card, it will feel like a given that this event will overshadow all that came before, and we have UFC Freedom 250 on that list.
In addition to main and co-main event, UFC 329 will be a home to Cory Sandhagne vs. Mario Bautista at bantamweight, Brandon Royval vs. Lone’er Kavanagh at flyweight, a lightweight bout between King Green, and Terrance McKinney, Robert Whittaker vs. Nikita Krylov at light heavyweight, Gable Stevenson vs. Elisha Ellison at heavyweight, Cody Garbrandt vs. Adrian Yanez bantamweight, at featherweight we have Luke Riley vs. Kai Kamaka III, with a lot of focus being on the women’s flyweight bout between Tracy Cortez and Wang Cong.
We could go even deeper down the preliminary rounds, but we think that we said enough to sell you this event. If you’re interested in watching it, and we are sure that you are, there’s more than a couple of ways to watch UFC nowadays. UFC is streamed on Paramount+ in recent months, since the company signed an exclusive contract with the online streamer. Also, there’s UFC Fight Pass and UFC Bar Finder. If none of these options suits you, you can always open an account on Stake. By being the official betting partner to UFC, this online casinos and sportsbook has exclusive rights to stream UFC fights. All you need to do is to open an account, find the event page, and see which event has an available live stream option. If you’re in for some sports betting, this can be an ideal way to combine two things for full pleasure. After all, UFC 329 is an event you do not want to miss.
