Speaking at a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship press conference in Glasgow on Saturday, McGregor used the platform of his own promotion to lay out the demand. “It has to be Holloway. Just do the f***ing thing again,” he told reporters, before setting a filter for any alternative the UFC might float: a world-calibre fighter, or nobody at all.

The rematch that set this saga in motion ended almost as soon as it began. On 11 July at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, McGregor threw his opening kick, buckled his right knee and went down. Holloway won by TKO at 1:09 of the opening round, and McGregor was later confirmed to have torn his ACL and meniscus.

McGregor, 38, used the Glasgow stage to push back on the callouts aimed at him since that loss.

“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,” he said, before adding the phrase he wanted left ringing in the room: a world-calibre fighter.

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Why McGregor wants the trilogy

The case for a third fight doubled as a swipe at Holloway’s conduct inside the Octagon in July. McGregor accused the Hawaiian of backing off and calling the referee in rather than closing on an obviously compromised opponent.

“On the one leg, he wasn’t coming near me,” he said.

Holloway has not spoken publicly since the callout. The two have shared the cage twice, with McGregor winning a decision at featherweight in 2013 and Holloway reversing the result at UFC 329 thirteen years later.

Pre-summer, and one fight left on the deal

McGregor said he is three months out from knee surgery and sketched a return window that would stop short of a full year on the sidelines.

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“Nine months is pre-summer. I just want to go again and again,” he said, which lines up a potential comeback in the first half of 2027.

He has one fight remaining on his UFC contract, and no counter-offer has been announced by the promotion.

BKFC is the backdrop

Glasgow was not an accidental venue for the demand. McGregor is a part-owner of BKFC and has long framed the bareknuckle outfit as where his fighting career lands once his UFC obligations are done. Saturday’s event was pitched as part of the promotion’s expansion in the United Kingdom, but the press conference pivoted, as these events tend to when McGregor is in the room, back to his own future.

The UFC has not announced a date, a venue or an opponent for his final appearance.

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