Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC
It’s no secret that Max Holloway loves to fight. He’s already been in the Octagon twice this year. But, even he may need more than two months before his next title defense.
If the UFC had a plan for a featherweight title fight to co-headline UFC 243 alongside Israel Adesanya’s bid to unify the middleweight title against Robert Whittaker, then the main event of UFC 240 couldn’t have gone much better. Champion Max Holloway smoothly out-worked Frankie Edgar for five rounds, piecing up the former lightweight title holder with a precision jab and his trademark, ever-increasing workrate. And while Edgar, by the numbers, landed a solid 96 significant strikes over the course of their bout, Holloway walked away seemingly fresh faced, none the worse for wear.
“I look fine. I look great…” Holloway said after the event, when speaking to the assembled media. (transcript via MMA Fighting)
However, when pressed about the potential of taking on top contender Alex Volkanovski at home, in Australia, just two months from now, Holloway was a bit more circumspect.
“…but,” he continued, “We’ve got to get medical testing.
“I’ve fought three title fights in seven months. I want to fight one more time this year, but we’ve got to go take all the right tests and see. And we’ll go from there.”
Holloway added that he understands how much a title fight in front of his home crowd would mean to the challenger, and doesn’t “want to take that away from the guy.” However, he seemed more set on the possibility of fighting in December than October.
“UFC has this habit of putting me the first week of December. Hopefully if I”m medically cleared and everything and I’m good to go by December, I can get that first week. ‘Cause that’s been Max week the last three years, I think.”
If ‘Blessed’ does get a clean bill of health, perhaps the UFC will find a way to sweeten their offer and get him in the cage in Melbourne. If not, fans may just have to wait until UFC 245 in Las Vegas (or maybe UFC on ESPN 7 in D.C.) before they see the Hawaiian grace the Octagon again.