As Conor McGregor’s featherweight rivals line up to take a shot at the welterweight adventures of ‘The Notorious,’ Max Holloway has taken a much more considered approach.
Holloway, the only man to take McGregor the distance in his professional career, sounds absolutely accepting of the plans put in place by the UFC for the Irishman, on one particular condition.
The Hawaiian featherweight insists he’s fine with McGregor moving up in weight as long as the promotion agree to afford him that same opportunities if he finds himself in a similar situation to The Notorious.
“It is what it is,” Holloway told MMA Fighting. “He’s the money man right now, so whatever the UFC wants to do, it is what is. It’s his life, let him do whatever he wants to do.
“Just, when I get into that position, if I ask for a fight at 170, I want a fight at 170. If I want to fight for a 155lb title – if I hold the 145lb title – give me the fight. So I ain’t complaining, because when I get into those positions, I don’t want anybody complaining about me. I’ll do what I like, it’s my own life.”
In fact, Holloway has praised the fact that the promotion has become more reactive to fights that fans actively want to see in recent years.
“I think it’s helping,” Holloway said. “The UFC is all about the fans. The fans ask for fights all the time and they get mad at the UFC for not giving it to them. Now they should be happy. The UFC is giving these superfights.
“The Frankie [Edgar] and [Urijah] Faber fight. The Nate Diaz fight. The UFC gave it to the fans. They asked them, ‘who do you want to see Conor fight,’ and everybody voted Nate Diaz. So it’s like, they should be happy that they were listening to the fans more.”
Holloway, despite his eight-fight win streak since the McGregor defeat, has been the least demanding fighter in the 145lb title picture and he’s put his lack of frustration down the fact that he intends to be in McGregor’s position and doesn’t want to face any resistance to his requests for super-fights.
“That’s why I’m not going to complain about it,” Holloway said. “Because when I get to there and I say I want to do this, if they’re like, ‘eh, we don’t know,’ it’ll be like, well how do you guys not know? Let’s go to the fans. Okay, you guys don’t know? Let’s go ask the fans what they want to see, and put them in that position. It is what it is.
“At the end of the day, the UFC has all the control. They can do whatever they like. They can make me fight fucking Jon Jones one day. It’s whatever they want. At the end of the day, they sign my checks. And I want pretty checks.
“I want to prove to the world that I’m the best fighter in the world. I’m not trying to be the best fighter in Hawaii or the best fighter in the U.S. I’m trying to be the best fighter in the world, and when this run is over, I want to make sure people talk about me like, ‘damn, this guy was one of the best ever’.”
