New champ Max Holloway on Conor McGregor: He can beg to fight me now

Last night, in the main event of UFC 212, Max Holloway scored a career-defining TKO win over once dominant featherweight king Jose Aldo. With this win, Holloway became the UFC’s undisputed featherweight champion, and extended his win-streak to a ridiculous eleven-straight.

Given his current streak, many fans have broached the possibility of a rematch between Holloway and the last man he lost to, Conor McGregor. Yet McGregor, who knocked Aldo out to win featherweight gold in 2015, is currently chasing a boxing mega fight with Floyd Mayweather, and Holloway doesn’t plan on chasing him down for a lucrative rematch.

“That guy was the 2015 champ,” Holloway told the media after his title win (via MMAFighting.com). “He can go running around wherever he’s at with the belt and celebrate, but guess what? You can’t take that away from him here. This is called the year 2017 right now, he’s the 2015 champ, and I’m the champ.”

“This guy’s over here always trying to look for the bigger thing and that’s him,” Holloway continued. “Good for him. I ain’t going to chase someone around. I ain’t going to talk about someone that ain’t talking about me. He gets to choose his fights. Why am I going to cry and beg him to fight me? Get the hell out of here with that sh*t. He can beg to fight me now.

Instead of chasing a big-ticket rematch with McGregor, Holloway now plans to channel flyweight champ demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and defend his new title as many times as possible.

“Demetrious Johnson, he finds his motivation of keep defending, keep defending,” Holloway said. “It takes a special human being to do that. And that’s me. I want to defend my throne. All my fans know, they love me, I want to defend this, I want to be a champ and keep defending. Come try to take over my village.”

How do you think Max Holloway would do in a rematch with Conor McGregor?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/4/2017.