Max Holloway put on a performance for the ages last Saturday (Jan. 16, 2021) against Calvin Kattar in the main event of UFC Fight Island 7, dominating “The Boston Finisher” and shattering striking records that will be hard to top in the years to come (see it again here).
After earning his first win in last three outings, Holloway once again earned the praises from his mixed martial arts (MMA) colleagues, as several fighters opened up their social media accounts to give “Blessed” his due credit for the scrap. And Kattar got plenty of love, too.
Among those who were impressed by Holloway was none other than current UFC Lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, who had nothing but complimentary things to say about the former 145-pound champion’s one-sided victory.
“I think about Max, he is already one of the best who has competed in MMA. He is one of the best and is probably the best Featherweight of all time. I think it was his best performance,” said Khabib in an interview with Full Reptile.
According to “The Eagle,” despite Holloway having 24 fights inside the Octagon, the 29-year old brawler hasn’t even entered the prime of his career. And when you look at what all he has accomplished thus far, he is only going to get better.
“When we look at Max, he is not old but he has a lot of fights in UFC. I think his prime time is coming, it’s not come yet. Maybe this year or maybe next year is going to be his prime time. It was not when he was champion, his time is going to come I he keeps focused doing everything he has to do,” he added before saying that if Holloway keeps on the pace he is going he has the chance to become the greatest fighter of all time.
“I really like Max, we were supposed to fight in 2018. I think his time is going to come and end of the year, maybe next year. It was his best performance; he is more of a great fighter today than he was a couple of days ago,” he added. “This was his best performance, but in future, in a couple of years he has the chance to show and become maybe the best fighter of all time.”
Thanks to his stellar outing, Holloway set himself up to face the winner of the upcoming title fight between division king, Alexander Volkanovski, and Brian Ortega, which is set to go down at UFC 260 on March 27, 2021.
Khabib, meanwhile, was in Abu Dhabi to meet with Dana White to talk about his fighting future. And though “The Eagle” didn’t give a definite answer, he did leave the door open for a comeback as long as someone impresses him at UFC 257.