Sean O'Malley: Conor McGregor will look good at UFC 329, but will it last?
· Yahoo Sports
Sean O'Malley doesn't expect Conor McGregor to look rusty at UFC 329.
McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) returns from a five-year long layoff to rematch Max Holloway (27-9 MMA, 23-9 UFC) in Saturday's UFC 329 welterweight main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+).
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McGregor has shown a tendency to slow down in fights throughout his career, which concerns O'Malley. However, despite the long layoff, O'Malley still sees McGregor as a dangerous threat early.
"I think if Conor gets it done, he's going to get it done in the first round, second round maybe," O'Malley said on his YouTube channel. "If not, it's probably going to be a Max Holloway masterpiece. Conor's been out for five years. It's a long time to be out. Those five years, he wasn't sleeping eight hours a night f*cking drinking smoothies. The dude was having a hell of a time, and that could play a role on you.
"I think Conor's going to come out there and look really good. I think he's going to surprise a lot of people. I think he's going to look good, I think he's going to look fast, but I don't know how long that looking good is going to last."
Smart money suggests Holloway, but O'Malley has a gut feeling that "The Notorious" will put on a special performance.
"My heart's telling me Conor McGregor," O'Malley said. "My mind's telling me Max Holloway goes in there, maybe gets cracked early, but at 170, I don't know if he's going to be able to get put away. Conor's going to land those big shots, Conor is going to land that left hand. Does it f*ck Max Holloway up? Or does Max Holloway eat?
"Max gets dropped. He got dropped in the Dustin Poirier fight. Ilia (Topuria) dropped him. He gets hit. He's got good defense, yes, but he gets hit. ... Guys like Max don't really care to get hit. Not that they're trying to, but that's their strategy. That's their game plan. That might be dangerous for Max, but it might be dangerous for Conor to try to land that shot and not get him out of there."
O'Malley perhaps jokingly concluded that McGregor will take out Holloway instantly, even surpassing his 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo.
"With all that being said, I've got Conor McGregor, Round 1, 12-second KO," O'Malley said.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Sean O'Malley: Conor McGregor will look good at UFC 329, but will it last?