Max Holloway is moving up to lightweight to fight Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 in April.
The last time Holloway tried his luck at 155 pounds, he was soundly defeated by longtime veteran Dustin Poirier back in early 2019. That was less than a year after “Blessed” was hospitalized with “concussion-like symptoms” and pulled from UFC 226.
Former two-division champion, Henry Cejudo, wants the fight canceled.
“Get Max Holloway out of the fight with Justin Gaethje and give him that fight in Spain,” Cejudo told MMA Junkie. “You fight a guy like Justin Gaethje … Justin Gaethje is a dude that will hurt you, and you will not be the same. He’s done it to Tony Ferguson, he’s done it to a lot of people. It’s lights out when you fight a guy like Justin Gaethje. I think sometimes you probably gotta save these guys from themselves.”
It may already be too late, based on this assessment.
Gaethje gave Ferguson a lopsided beating at UFC 249 back in May 2020, a fight that had “El Cucuy” cutting weight twice within the span of three weeks. Shortly after the stoppage, then-lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov predicted Ferguson was “finished.”
“Tony Ferguson is finished now,” Nurmagomedov told ESPN. “He’s gonna come back, and someone gonna beat him again, I believe. Because when you take damage like this, you’re never going to be the same. Never. Even if you’re Tony Ferguson. He take too much damage.”
Ferguson would go on to lose his next six fights.