Max Holloway says he will fight at any weight, but the one voice that matters the most says featherweight is where he will stay.
The UFC’s 145-pound champion added Frankie Edgar to his long list of conquests in the featherweight division in the main event of UFC 240 on Saturday night in Edmonton, Alberta.
A convincing unanimous decision in which two judges scored it a shutout, five rounds to none, was win No. 13 in a row and 16th overall at 145 pounds for Holloway, who has aspirations of being the No. 1-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
That goal was momentarily stopped in April when he lost a decision to Dustin Poirier challenging for the interim 155-pound title.
Holloway stood toe-to-toe with Poirier and went the full 25 minutes, but it wasn’t enough to convince UFC president Dana White that he should compete at a higher weight in the future.
“I think his last performance at 55 ends the conversation of him going up to 55,” White said at the UFC 240 post-fight press conference. “I think Max looks small no matter what Max does. I don’t think there is a way for him to put that kind of weight on. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen and he couldn’t ever go back to 55, but I think I’m a believer now that this is his weight class.”
Although Holloway has never missed weight at 145 pounds, he’s 5 feet 11 and will turn 28 in December.
He suffered concussion-like symptoms and had to pull out of a fight against Brian Ortega the week of the fight last summer. Prior to that, he attempted to take a 155-pound fight on six days notice, where he had to lose 30 pounds and was a couple of pounds short prior to the weigh-in when doctors deemed him unfit to compete after the tough weight cut.
Holloway said after Saturday’s win that he wants to fight again this year but admitted he needed to make sure he was up for it physically first.
“We will see what happens. I looked fine. I look great. We’ve got to get medical testing,” Holloway said. “I fought three title fights in seven months. I want to fight one more time this year, but we’ve got to take all the right tests, and we go from there.”
He joked about fighting his good friend, Daniel Cormier, at heavyweight, but also didn’t fully agree with White’s thoughts on his future at 155.
“Dana changes his mind every day. Tomorrow he might be like, ‘Hey Max, we need a heavyweight fight,’ ” Holloway said. “Dana’s mind is all over the place, but I’ve got to respect the boss. At the end of the day, it is what it is. If an opportunity is up there and they come calling, we won’t shy away.”
There is a clear No. 1 contender that has emerged at 145 pounds. No. 1-ranked Alex Volkanovski is 7-0 in the UFC and is coming off back-to-back wins over Chad Mendes and former titleholder Jose Aldo.
Volkanovski attended the fight Saturday and even made weight in case either Edgar or Holloway had to pull out at the last minute.
What’s next for Holloway remains to be seen, but there isn’t any debate about holding it in Hawaii.
White shot down any notion of it taking place here, and Holloway was in agreement.
“It’s not a UFC thing, it’s a Hawaii thing,” Holloway said. “You’ve got (places) like Abu Dhabi, they are building a stadium for the UFC to come. UFC Hawaii, the state or whatever, they don’t want it that bad. We have a stadium (in Hawaii) so I just think that it’s one of those things that Hawaii doesn’t want it that bad.”
