Holloway finally gets title shot

Max Holloway finally has a clear path to the top.

After spending an entire year stuck in a 145-pound division clogged by the wayward adventures of the now former champion Conor McGregor, Waianae’s Holloway caught his break in his quest to become a world champion.

An injury forced light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier to pull out of the UFC 206 main event two weeks ago and caused the organization to scramble for a viable option as the new headline attraction of Saturday’s already scheduled pay-per-view event in Toronto.

The UFC decided to strip McGregor, who is also the lightweight champion at 155 pounds, of his featherweight belt that he had not defended in a year.

That allowed the company to elevate Holloway’s fight with Anthony Pettis to the main event, with the winner earning an interim 145-pound title to take into a unification bout against Jose Aldo next year.

Holloway (16-3, 12-3 UFC), who would have been the only fighter in UFC history to win nine consecutive fights without receiving a title shot, now knows exactly what lies ahead in order to fulfill his dream of becoming the UFC’s undisputed world featherweight champion.

“I’ve always said there’s things you can’t control (in this business) and this was one of those things I couldn’t control,” Holloway said last week before leaving to do nine days of media-related activities in advance of Saturday’s fight. “The water was murky, and now with all of this going on the water is clear.”

A relaxed Holloway went through a little workout on Nov. 28 before heading to Los Angeles for media.

He arrived in Toronto over the weekend and has been featured in the UFC Embedded daily video blogs leading up to the fight.

Holloway visited Niagara Falls, attended his first NHL game and even invited a Pettis fan to spar with him during his open workout on Wednesday.

It’s all part of being the headline fighter on a UFC pay-per-view. He joins B.J. Penn as the only fighters from Hawaii to main event a UFC pay-per-view and can also become the state’s second UFC champion.

“The thing I love most is I get to go out there — get paid a little bit more — get this media all around us now as my first pay-per-view event and then I can get the gold,” Holloway said. “Life’s good. I can’t do any complaining.”

The lure of the matchup with Pettis (19-5, 6-4) — and part of the reason Holloway took this fight thinking at the time it wouldn’t be for a title — is that the styles of the fighters make for an intriguing bout.

Pettis, a former UFC lightweight champion, had one of his career-defining moments when he jumped and pushed himself off the side of the cage to land a jump kick that knocked down another former UFC champion, Benson Henderson, in a World Extreme Cagefighting bout.

Pettis won the 155-pound WEC title in that fight before the company merged with the UFC. He went on to claim the UFC belt with a submission win over Henderson three years later.

Pettis has also stopped Donald Cerone and Joe Lauzon and submitted Gilbert Melendez to retain his UFC belt, but then lost consecutive fights to Rafael Dos Anjos, Eddie Alvarez and Edson Barboza before dropping to 145 pounds earlier this year.

Holloway has landed more significant strikes at 145 pounds than any other fighter in UFC history and has earned six of his 11 wins at featherweight via stoppage. Pettis has never been stopped in 24 professional fights.

“I want to prove I’m one of the best in the world and (Pettis) was the next guy up (at the time),” Holloway said. “When I was fighting here in Hawaii, I remember saying I wanted to fight guys like Pettis and Aldo and now it’s crazy after all of that hard work to get right here.”

After fighting four times in both 2014 and ’15, Saturday will be only the second fight for Holloway since December of last year. He pulled off a unanimous decision over Ricardo Lamas in June after resting a few injuries and then had to wait for the division to shape out ahead of him with McGregor fighting Nate Diaz twice at 170 pounds and then challenging for the 155-pound title.

“It’s been frustrating, but we haven’t been fighting for a good reason — the UFC couldn’t book me,” said Holloway, now ranked No. 2 at 145 pounds. “I want three to four (fights each year). It sucks not being active so much, but hey, it was good, sometimes you need a break.”

He got a break in action and caught a break with the Cormier injury. When the door to the Octagon is shut on Saturday night and ring announcer Bruce Buffer screams, “It’s time,” he’ll really mean it for the 25-year-old Hawaiian from the West Side.

Holloway’s six-year quest that began in DestinyMMA at War Memorial Gym on Maui in front of fewer than 1,000 people will culminate before a crowd of more than 20,000 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto with hundreds of thousands more people watching at home on pay-per-view.

“This is history,” Holloway said. “History is being made and I’m grateful for every second of this. My time is now and I will go out there and fight my heart out for all of my Hawaiians.”