Max Holloway Says Conor McGregor is “Human Just Like All of Us”, While Discussing Star’s Controversies

Since they fought back in 2013, Max Holloway and Conor McGregor have had some interesting exchanges online. But, recently “Blessed” outlined why he still respects his former foe, and why he isn’t piling on McGregor, following several, highly publicized incidents.

Holloway says McGregor is only “human”

McGregor has remained a fixture in MMA headlines over the last few years, and not just for news related to his fighting career. This past summer, video surfaced of him striking an elderly man in a Dublin pub and that followed an incident where he smashed the phone of a man who was trying to take his picture. Those were in  addition to the new now infamous, dolly throwing incident at UFC 223 (McGregor is also being investigated in connection to sexual assault allegations, which his team has vehemently denied).

Well, recently Holloway spoke with MMA Fighting, and while discussing McGregor’s incidents, the featherweight champ said this:

“He’s human just like all of us. He had some bad, unfortunate events happen,” Holloway said. “He was just doing the wrong stuff at the wrong time and it sucks but dude is human. That’s just it.”

There’s no question McGregor has done some “wrong stuff” and some of that certainly seems to have cost the Irish star some fans (although, he remains a massive draw).

Holloway explains why he respects McGregor

And in terms of the verbal jabs they’ve traded over the years? Since McGregor defeated Holloway in 2013? Well, the Hawaiian star says all of that was “business”, and Holloway pointed to well wishes McGregor’s given in the past, as evidence.

“The way he talks is business, and business is business,” Holloway said. “I understand that point of business with someone. There might be a point where you cross a line where it’s not business anymore and it gets personal but he never did that. He never crossed that line. That’s what I respect about him.

“…[Conor] was the first one that asked me, that tweeted how everybody was saying this stuff [about the fight being cancelled] but nobody was asking about how I was when the whole [Khabib Nurmagomedov] thing happened,” Holloway said.

Now, Khabib Nurmagomedov and his supporters would argue that many of the things McGregor said leading up to their fight crossed the line and weren’t about just “business”. But, clearly Holloway doesn’t feel that’s happened between him and the “Notorious” one. The fact he inquired  about Holloway when there were concerns about his health, was no doubt a nice gesture.

Holloway is preparing to fight Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 245 on December 14th. McGregor, meanwhile, is booked to face Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, January 18th.