Despite his massive success at featherweight, Max Holloway isn’t looking to stay put at his home weight class.
Even in his post-championship run, Max Holloway is considered to be one of the best featherweight fighters of all-time. But despite this massive success, the 29-year-old pride of Wai?anae, Hawaii isn’t looking to stay put at 145 pounds.
Holloway did have a one-off UFC fight at 155 pounds when he fought Dustin Poirier for the interim title in 2019. And as he told Ariel Helwani on Tuesday, it’s all a matter of making that full commitment to his chosen weight class.
“When we took that Dustin fight, (it) was like on a two months’ notice, a little bit under two months,” Holloway said. “We did that fight and then two months later, I was fighting back at ’45.
“The intriguing question to everybody is, ‘When is Max gonna commit to ’55 fully and not do this jump around stuff?’ Let everybody wonder, right? We’ll see what happens.”
At his age, retirement is obviously still far away from Holloway’s mind. But as early as now, he already plans to compete in a third weight class before he calls it quits.
“I think I end my career at ’55 and fully commit at ’55, or maybe even I’ll fully commit at ’70,” he said. “Who knows? We’ll see what happens. It’s just commitment. My coaches, they want commitment. I want commitment, the UFC wants commitment. We’ll see what happens.”
Holloway welcomed 2021 with a stellar performance against Calvin Kattar at UFC Fight Island 7. He won the bout via a wide-margined unanimous decision, along with a Fight of the Night bonus and a new level of respect and admiration from fans and fellow fighters all around.