Receiving a rather lengthy call out from undisputed featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria after his stunning UFC 300 victory, Max Holloway admitted he was taken aback at the Georgian’s offer – claiming he didn’t even take the time to read the response.
Holloway, a former undisputed featherweight champion and the recently-minted symbolic BMF titleholder, earned that second crown in emphatic fashion at UFC 300 earlier this month.
En route to an eventual decision win over then-holder Justin Gaethje, Holloway urged the former to stand and trade with him in the final seconds of the fifth round, turning in a blistering left hook knockout with a single second remaining in the bout.
As for Topuria, the Spaniard resident headlined UFC 298 back in February, ending the dominant featherweight title run of Alexander Volkanovski with a crushing second round KO win in Anaheim.
Weighing up a slew of fights in the aftermath of his stoppage win against Gaethje, Hawaiian favorite, Holloway welcomed clashes with lightweight kingpin, Islam Makhachev, as well as a featherweight return to tangle with the above-mentioned, Topuria.
Laying out his demands to defend his title with Holloway on home soil, Topuria claimed if the former would not oblige, he would simply face off with would-be common-opponent, Brian Ortega instead.
Max Holloway reacts to Ilia Topuria call out
However, taking umbrage with Topuria’s comments, Holloway claimed he was surprised at the length of the defending champion’s social media response.
“He (Ilia Topuria) writes like a freakin’ paragraph to me,” Max Holloway said during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. “I didn’t even read it, that’s how long it was. He writes a paragraph to me, and I was just tripping out. It was like an angry girlfriend text, you know, Like my wife don’t even text me like that.”
“I read the first sentence and I was like, ‘I’m not reading this, bro,”’ Max Holloway continued. “‘What the hell is wrong with you?’ I don’t know what’s going on. I rea the first two and then I saw you had to scroll, I was like ‘What the f*ck? Did I make my wife mad?’ I had to make sure it wasn’t her.”
Furthermore, during Rogan’s conversation with Holloway – the long-time color-commentator claimed he had heard Topuria turned down the chance to fight the above-mentioned, Volkanovski in a UFC 305 title fight rematch in August.
Who wins in a future championship fight: Ilia Topuria or Max Holloway?