Former UFC featherweight champion, Max Holloway explains decision to take Justin Gaethje fight rather than wait for a potential title shot.
Holloway is under a month out from his clash at UFC 300 against ‘The Highlight’. While an exciting clash, the booking came out of the blue and actually left some a little concerned for Max Holloway, who will be moving up in weight.
Last time he did so, he was soundly beaten by Dustin Poirier which left him bloody and swollen. Holloway is also riding back-to-back wins over Chan Sung Jung and Arnold Allen, leaving him as a front-runner for a shot at Ilia Topuria and his title.
Topuria knocked out Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 and with an immediate rematch unlikely, Holloway seemed a viable candidate. Aside from both Volkanovski and Topuria, Holloway has practically cleared out the rest of the top featherweights but instead chose to take on Gaethje.
Max Holloway reveals reason for UFC 300 fight with Justin Gaethje
Taking on his YouTube channel, Holloway explained why –
“There’s a lot of people talking about like, ‘Oh, this fight is crazy, Why you guys are doing this fight?’” Max Holloway said. “‘Why, why Max? Why don’t you just wait for Topuria? Why don’t you just wait?’ Not a lot of people know: this game, it goes by you fast, man. It goes by you quick.”
Holloway’s clash against Gaethje will be his 30th UFC fight and is experience enough to understand the MMA game. It moves quick, anything can happen.
“Nothing is promised. How many times do we see someone promised a title shot and it never happened? Holloway questioned. “How much time do you see someone fight for an interim title shot and it never happens? Me and Gaethje were the next guys respectfully up in our title shot. Correct? But how many times does that work? It doesn’t work all the time. So with the Topuria thing everybody keeps saying, ‘Oh, you’re the next one.’ It’s like, am I really?
“I thought this whole time that if Topuria beat Volk in any way, Volk gets a direct rematch,” he continued. “Volk did enough work to earn himself a direct rematch. And everybody’s like, ‘Oh yeah, but after the knockout,’ and blah blah. Volk still earns it. He still earns it. He did what he did. He has a bunch of title defensive. Just because he went up a weight class and lost, I don’t think it should affect him at his own weight class.”
Who wins, Max Holloway or Justin Gaethje?