The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight division has been in somewhat of a weird place as of late, as division king Conor McGregor hasn’t defend his title since winning it last December since he’s too busy fighting bigger guys at welterweight.
In the meantime, an interim champion was crowned when Jose Aldo defeated Frankie Edgar for a second time at UFC 200 this past July (see it). Aside from that, the weight class hasn’t been getting much love, though it has been getting new faces.
And one of the men suffering from that is perhaps the hottest fighter in the division, Max Holloway, who has won nine straight since losing to McGregor three years ago. Ranked at No. 3, Max can easily make a case for next shot at the strap once it’s unified.
But the Hawaiian-born fighter says the days of holding his breath are over, as he has no clue what will happen when it comes to the 145-pound title picture, especially since Conor’s next step is rather unclear. And while he would love nothing more than to rematch Conor or take on Aldo, he'll go for consecutive win number 10 if that's what it takes.
"Blessed" breaks it down on The MMA Hour:
"The weird thing of the division is that there are two champions. I would sit here and say I want to fight Conor but that would be stupid, I would be a dumbass because there is another belt in the division and Aldo gots it. If Conor comes back down then they will fight each other for sure. I’m not saying where is my fight because Aldo has a belt. We here talk about Conor going up to 155 and fighting for that belt, which means he’ll drop his belt, so the only fight that makes sense is probably me and Aldo since Aldo already fought the guy, Frankie Edgar twice that’s in front of me. I would like to think I’m next in line, but we’ve seen some crazy things in UFC happen. I ain’t holding my breath on it, if I get the call I get the call and if it not, then we will have to go for 10."
John Kavanagh, Conor’s head trainer, recently stated he’d like to see "Notorious" make a permanent change to 155-pounds, which means the Irishman would have to forfeit his 145-pound strap, per Dana White.
Should that be the case, it’s safe to assume Max would take on Aldo for the official belt.
While Conor and Co. sort their goals out, Holloway says he has no qualms in fighting again, as he hopes to land a fight at UFC 205 in New York this November against someone like Frankie Edgar, who resides just up the river in New Jersey.