UFC featherweight contender Max Holloway feels like the odd man out with Diaz vs. McGregor 2 and Aldo vs. Edgar 2 booked for UFC 200.
There always seems to be an odd man out, and in this case it’s Max Holloway.
Surging UFC featherweight contender Holloway has been calling out UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor, former champion Jose Aldo and current top contender Frankie Edgar for months, but all three were recently booked for the landmark UFC 200 card later this year. Holloway did not get his wish of fighting a top three 145-pounder despite a very impressive winning streak of eight in-a-row, including finishes over Cub Swanson and Charles Oliveira last year, and now there is no clear next-fight for the 24-year old.
“I just feel left out because my last fight wasn’t a finish,” Holloway told MMAFighting.com. “When I was finishing guys, the media was on me like crazy. Then I have this one decision fight against a guy (Jeremy Stephens) who, ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, Anthony Pettis, these guys couldn’t finish him. And then [people are] looking at me, asking me how the hell I didn’t finish him. It’s like, look at these guys. These guys are beasts and they had a hard time with the fight too. They couldn’t finish him either.
“So I’m a true believer in, people only remember you for your last fight. And my last fight, I felt, was great, but I guess some people didn’t think it was so hot. So it is what it is.”
A very frustrated Holloway isn’t too impressed with the UFC matchmakers and, at this point, just wants a fight. Whether he has to take a step back down and fight another top 10 opponent, or top 15, it doesn’t really matter to the Hawaiian anymore.
“I want to get back in there and I want to get busy,” Holloway said. “I’ve been telling everybody, I’ve had four fights each in back-to-back years. One fight was in January [in 2014], and then last year my first fight was in February. Now, it’s like the end of March and I have no fight. I’m not even booked yet. I would like to get back in June or July. The UFC 200 card, that big one, or June on that big Weidman-Rockhold card (UFC 199). But still, look, that’s almost half the year. Half the year is almost gone by fighting there, so I want to get busy.
“If it takes 10, 12, 13… I’ll just keep going,” he insisted. “Because like I said, I want to just prove I’m the best in the world. So if I have to keep proving it, I’m going to go out there and keep proving it. But at the end of the day, I want those big money fights. So whenever the big money fights start rolling in, that should be fun. But I don’t know. Who knows? The UFC has a mind of its own. Whatever they want to do, I’m down for. Just keep me active, please. That’s all I ask the UFC to do. Keep me active.”
The top of the featherweight division is a mess right now with McGregor fighting in heavier weight divisions still figuring out whether he will move up full-time or return to 145-pounds to defend his title and Aldo and Edgar fighting for the interim belt.
Holloway doesn’t believe McGregor, who faces Nate Diaz in a non-title welterweight bout in the UFC 200 headliner, will return to the featherweight division because he was already a massive featherweight. And now, after July 9, the Irishman will have competed at heavier weight twice in-a-row, making it even more difficult to cut down to 145-pounds.
“At the end of the day, who knows if he comes back to 145? Honestly, my feeling, I don’t think that he does,” Holloway told MMA Fighting. “I think that 155-pound fight (against dos Anjos) was already saying that he just wanted to be at 155, hold the two titles, say that he did it, then just move up full-time. That’s what I thought he was thinking of doing, because he’s a big guy. All you hear of him is struggling to make 145. This guy struggles. You see, all he does is [cut weight] all week long.
“So he was going to go up sooner or later. Then you see him getting bigger every fight. … His last fight, he was a big boy. And he already had a hard time cutting. [With him] going back up to 170, I think he’s going to gain weight and have to cut a little, just trying to compete at that level, at 170. So who knows if he’s coming down?”