Max Holloway knows he and Ilia Topuria will fight eventually.
Holloway is set to move up to lightweight at UFC 300 to face Justin Gaethje for the BMF title on Saturday night. It’s an intriguing matchup and the Hawaiian has confidence he can beat Gaethje.
If Holloway does beat Gaethje, he could get a title shot at lightweight, but many hope he returns to featherweight to face Ilia Topuria, but ‘Blessed’ says that the fight will happen eventually.
“This whole Ilia [Topuria] talk, a lot of people just harassing me like ‘oh my god he’s gonna kill Max’. Brother, when I was Ilia’s age I think I had a title defense already. I was fighting for like 3 titles already. Calm down bro, when the time comes and it happens, it’s gonna happen and I look forward to that,” Max Holloway said to Demetrious Johnson.
Holloway is only 32 and became the undisputed champion in 2017 when he was 26, while Topuria is currently 27, so the Hawaiian knows the two of them have plenty of time to fight eventually.
Max Holloway eager to share Octagon with Justin Gaethje
Max Holloway is fighting for the BMF title, but he also is excited to face Justin Gaethje, as he knows both of them are future Hall of Famers.
The fight was sky-high expectations to be entertaining from start-to-finish, and Holloway expects that to be the case as he calls it a Hall of Fame fight.
“I really want my undisputed (featherweight) title back. Then, maybe, we can come back up. But I mean, if (UFC matchmakers) give you a (lightweight) title shot right after this one, what do you say? First things first, and that’s Justin Gaethje. I’m locked in on him because I got to get through him to see the future… At the end of the day, he’s a future Hall of Famer,” Holloway said to UFC.com. “I feel like I might be a future Hall of Famer. This is a Hall of Fame fight. And if you want to be the best guy, you’ve got to fight the best guys.”
Holloway enters the fight coming off a knockout win over Korean Zombie.