Max Holloway could be 24 hours away from UFC featherweight greatness.
“Blessed” is currently on an amazing 10 fight win streak over some of the biggest names at featherweight; including Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira, Jeremy Stephens, Ricardo Lamas, and most recently former UFC lightweight champ Anthony Pettis. Now the interim 145-pound champ is set to test himself against the greatest featherweight of all time – Jose Aldo.
Aldo reigned undefeated in mixed martial arts (MMA) competition for over a decade before getting slept in 13 seconds by Conor McGregor at UFC 194 in December of 2015. He bounced right back with a lopsided unanimous decision win over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 for the interim featherweight strap, but was promoted to undisputed champ after McGregor was forced to vacate his title.
Now “Scarface” will once again compete in a title unification bout, but this time against a young and hungry Hawaiian who is looking to solidify himself as the best 145-pound fighter in the world. Holloway once looked up to Aldo as an idol in his fighting career, but now he is ready to de-throne the Brazilian champ and take his place amongst the greats in the UFC (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“Idols become your rivals, and now I got one of them in front of me,” Holloway says. “And I can’t wait to make that walk and fight the guy. Things happen. Timing wasn’t right (before), and the timing is (right) now. I just look forward to it. I respect the guy. You need to respect the guy. Look, he’s the greatest to do it. Like I said before, since I was 17, I watched this guy sit atop our division. So, man, it’s time for a new era.”
As for Aldo’s 13 second loss to McGregor, Holloway doesn’t to hold that against the featherweight champ as much as everyone else does. At the end of the day “Blessed” still recognizes Aldo as one of the greatest the sport has ever seen, and won’t take him lightly:
“At the end of the day, he got caught,” Holloway says. “Thirteen seconds, whatever. It happens. This is a sport. He was one of the greatest. He had a long run. You kinda question some things, like maybe why he didn’t get an immediate rematch and blah, blah, blah, this and that. But, at the end of the day, he still fought Frankie (Edgar) for a dominating win and did it, won it. I hold nothing against him. I don’t care.
“I want the undisputed career. I want the best damn career. I want to be the best guy ever to do this. When it’s said and done, a long time from now, (I want) people still talking about my name as being the undisputed (best) fighter in the world. Not only of the featherweights, the GOAT of everything. I want to be like Demetrious Johnson taking pictures with 11 belts, or even like Joanna with her five belts. So, it’s cool. I want to be like these guys and just be dominant, just be dominant and leave no question that I was the best to ever do this.”
Some people may think Holloway is acting a little too cocky heading into his bout with Aldo, but “Blessed” urges fans not to mistake cockiness for confidence:
“I know I can,” Holloway says. “This is confidence, it’s not cockiness. Everybody keeps saying, ‘oh, this kid is cocky,’ this and that. No. No, just because you don’t believe in yourself, don’t be trying to bring your negative ass energy around me. You keep your negative self away from me, and I’m going to keep my positive self with my circle of boys and people, and that’s what we’re going to do. We stay confident and I know I’m the greatest. I tell myself I’m the greatest, and this is what you need to do.
“The stats, they speak for themselves. Go look at the featherweight stats and records and whatever. If my name ain’t first, it’s at least in the top-three or top-five of whatever. So it is what it is. I’m going out there to be dominant. This guy over here (Aldo) is saying that he chooses when he wants to be in wars and now he’s choosing to finish me early or something. Like, that’s f*cking amazing. I don’t read palms, I don’t read the stars. I’m not a mind-reader or fortune teller, I can’t see the future. But at the end of the day, I want the undisputed [accolades], and I know the things I can control.”
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