Conor McGregor calls his next bout 'my final fight' in a jab at Canelo's numbers

Conor McGregor said on Sunday, November 1, that his next fight will be his last, calling it "My final fight" on X. He named no opponent or date, and he didn't use the word "retire". We found no response from Dana White, the UFC or Max Holloway as of Sunday.

The post was a shot at Canelo Alvarez, who beat Christian Mbilli by unanimous decision in Riyadh on Saturday. The win gave Canelo back the WBC super middleweight title.

McGregor opened by asking, "How many views did the canelo fight get? How many in attendance? Gate ?" He then wrote, "Man I outdo ALL of these people in sales," adding, "With ease. Maybe even combined."

Near the end he wrote:

I'm going to actually try to sell the fight for my next one. My final fight.

He finished with "See what numbers I can generate. Keep outdoing my own records."

Final fight of what?

He didn't say, and coverage has split. Heavy and SB Nation read it as the last fight on his UFC contract, while SI has him ending his MMA career.

McGregor says he has one UFC fight left, though the UFC hasn't confirmed that, according to Athlon. He called it the "Final fight of the contract" on Instagram in July. In September, in a since-deleted Instagram Story about bare-knuckle fighting, he wrote, "One more to go and the Mac Daddy is free," SI reported. He has been a BKFC part-owner since April 2024.

His coach, John Kavanagh, told Ariel Helwani, "I just don't know if he's done with competition just yet," HITC reported on October 29. We think Sunday's post means his last UFC fight, not the end of his fighting. The bare-knuckle talk is seven weeks old, his coach isn't sure he's finished, and nothing in the post takes either back.

The numbers behind the boast

His question can't be answered yet. Neither Riyadh Season nor DAZN had published attendance, gate or buys by Sunday afternoon, Boxing Insider reported.

His own draw is real. Paramount put UFC 329, held July 11, at 15.9 million total viewers and a UFC-record 8.3 million peak, Sherdog reported.

The gate was a UFC-record $26.43 million from 20,078 fans, per Wikipedia, citing MMA Junkie. White had put it at about $25 million before the fight.

Beating "ALL of these people" is a harder claim. Canelo's September 2025 fight with Terence Crawford averaged 41.4 million viewers on Netflix, counting next-day viewing. UFC 329 averaged 6.5 million on Paramount, a different platform and measurement. The Crawford fight's gate was $47.2 million, according to Front Office Sports.

His sales records are older: 2.4 million U.S. buys for UFC 229, then 4.3 million buys and a $55.4 million gate for boxing Floyd Mayweather. UFC 329 wasn't a pay-per-view, so it can't be measured against those buys.

He also said he went up against "the World Cup semi final", but that night had a quarter-final. The semi-finals came on July 14 and 15.

What comes next

McGregor is 38, 22-7 in MMA, and has lost three straight in the UFC. Holloway won by TKO at 1:09 of the first round at UFC 329, when McGregor tore his ACL and meniscus. He said in August that surgery was a success.

His return looks like 2027, with no date set. He has said he needs nine to 12 months, and Athlon and SB Nation give International Fight Week 2027 as his target. Kavanagh said, "I guess it'll be next year until he can start returning to MMA type training." White said in July that the next fight isn't under discussion until McGregor is cleared for hard training.

McGregor closed at +240, or 28%, against Holloway at -295. We have closing odds for his last three fights. He lost all three, when those prices expected about 1.5 wins.

Holloway is the only opponent either side has named, and the series stands at 1-1. McGregor said in July, "It has to be Holloway." White's answer then was "Not even thinking about it."

Holloway, who has no fight booked, said in August, "If it's a Conor McGregor fight again, I'll sign the dotted line."