Less than 12 hours after his second TKO win over Jose Aldo, Max Holloway was already responding to trash talk on social media.
Conor McGregor, the former UFC featherweight champion and current lightweight champion, who was last seen boxing Floyd Mayweather in September, tweeted out a photo of Holloway’s face busted up after the two fought in 2013, with McGregor winning a unanimous decision.
“I miss those sunglasses,” McGregor wrote captioning a picture Holloway took with bandages above his right eye.
Holloway, the undisputed 145-pound champion with 12 consecutive wins, responded with a photo of him and McGregor, listing the upgrades for 2017 for the current UFC featherweight champion compared to McGregor in 2015.
Holloway has the most significant strikes landed, knockdowns, stoppages, knockout wins and total victories of any UFC 145-pound fighter ever.
“Miss the sunglasses? I bet you also miss 2015 brother. Retired fighters love the past,” Holloway wrote.
A Holloway-McGregor rematch would give the Waianae native a payday likely bigger than all of his other clashes combined, or close to it.
McGregor is the UFC’s biggest and highest-drawing star, and it isn’t even close. The problem is, nobody knows if or when he will fight again.
UFC President Dana White has said as much, reiterating again after Saturday’s UFC 218 pay-per-view in Detroit that he’s moving forward as if McGregor isn’t fighting again. He said anything is possible and didn’t completely rule out a Holloway and McGregor fight, but it seemed unlikely.
He did praise his current featherweight champion and how he dismantled Jose Aldo for the second time in six months.
“Incredible. The way (Holloway) fought tonight, the way he walked (Aldo) down, tried to break him mentally and physically was incredible,” White said at the postfight press conference. “He looked like a stud tonight. He got hit with some big shots he did not need to get hit with to prove he could walk through them.”
Holloway was originally expected to fight Frankie Edgar before an injury forced the former UFC lightweight champion to pull out of the fight.
Edgar, who has defeated Hilo’s B.J. Penn three times, including twice in title fights, is expected back around the same time Holloway would be ready to fight again.
That’s the likely fight to make, but the huge payday that exists with a dream fight against McGregor is enough for Holloway to do everything he can to make that fight happen, even if it means engaging in trash talk on social media.
Holloway’s attitude has always been facing whoever the UFC puts in front of him. He’s also been an advocate for a UFC in Hawaii event and continued to make his case, revealing that even White might be backing off his stance of not doing a show at Aloha Stadium.
“I saw Dana (after the fight) and I was talking to him. He said, ‘Maybe I got to do it outside and just suck it up,’ ” Holloway said. “I think the fight (in Hawaii) is going to happen.”
Whatever the case, Holloway is clearly a star and a draw for the UFC. Currently ranked No. 4 in UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings, Holloway trails only Demetrious Johnson, Georges St-Pierre and McGregor on that list.
His 12-fight winning streak has only been topped by St-Pierre, Johnson, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva — all legends of the sport.
Holloway turns 26 today, but remains loyal to the company. Ask him what he wants next and it’s all about eating cupcakes.
“Cupcakes taste great. I’ll take anything,” Holloway said. “I told you guys. These guys is cupcakes. I want the new flavor. I want to know how the new flavor tastes like. I know how the old ones taste and it’s great.
“As long as I get contenders, I’m going to fight. If the Conor fight doesn’t happen, it’s not (because of) my side. I’m sitting pretty. I’m hungry and if they want the fight that’s the fight the UFC makes. I don’t care.”
