Max Holloway News

Tom Taylor - December 9, 2016

When Daniel Cormier was forced to withdraw from his planned light heavyweight title fight with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, it left Saturday night’s UFC 206 without a main event. To rectify this situation, the UFC enacted a multi-part plan: First, they stripped Conor McGregor of the UFC featherweight title. Then they promoted interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo to undisputed champion. Finally they announced that UFC 206’s co-main event, a featherweight fight between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis, had been promoted to the main event spot, where it would crown the new interim featherweight champion. It was a fairly transparent effort to give fans in Toronto the title fight they wanted, and not everybody was impressed by it. In the end, however, this planned interim featherweight title fight will not actually occur, as Anthony Pettis failed to make the featherweight division’s 145-pound weight limit.

bjpenndotcom - December 7, 2016

This Saturday, in the main event of UFC 206 in Toronto, top ranked featherweight Max Holloway and former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis will step into the Octagon in a highly anticipated showdown for the interim featherweight title. While the fight was initially set as the co-main event of the pay-per view, the fight was promoted to the main event, and made an interim title fight after Conor McGregor ‘relinquished’ his featherweight title, and the UFC promoted Jose Aldo to the undisputed featherweight champion. As a result, the fight between Holloway & Pettis was promoted to the main event, and made to be an interim featherweight title fight.

bjpenndotcom - December 7, 2016

This Saturday at UFC 206, former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis will step into the Octagon to fight streaking featherweight Max Holloway in a highly anticipated showdown of featherweight contenders. The fight will not only serve as the main event of UFC 206, it will also be an interim featherweight title fight, with the winner fighting Jose Aldo for the undisputed featherweight championship.

Tom Taylor - December 6, 2016

Hawaiian featherweight Max Holloway is currently on a fantastic, 9-fight winning-streak. The last man he lost to is former featherweight champion and current lightweight champion Conor McGregor. Their fight occurred all the way back in 2013. Since then, Holloway has established himself as one of the best fighters on earth – as evidenced by his upcoming interim featherweight title fight with Anthony Pettis. While Holloway is focused on his upcoming battle with Pettis, he’s made no secret of the fact that he’s keen on a rematch with McGregor – even if that rematch occurs at heavyweight.

Tom Taylor - December 5, 2016

https://youtu.be/UFi_2Zb7g00 The UFC has not touched down in Toronto since late 2013, when Jon Jones defended the light heavyweight title against Alexander Gustafsson in one of the greatest championship fights ever. This Saturday, the organization will finally return to the Canadian metropolis with UFC 206.

bjpenndotcom - December 1, 2016

As top ranked UFC featherweight Max Holloway gears up for his UFC 206 interim featherweight title fight with Anthony Pettis on December 10th in the main event of UFC 206 in Toronto, the streaking featherweight has his eyes set on a rematch with UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor, who just recently relinquished his featherweight championship. McGregor of course won the UFC featherweight championship a year ago when he knocked out reigning featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds at UFC 194. Over the course of the last 12 months, McGregor fought Nate Diaz twice at welterweight, losing the first fight, before then bouncing back and winning a majority decision back in August, and fought once at lightweight, where he captured the lightweight championship by TKOing Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 earlier this month.

bjpenndotcom - November 30, 2016

Earlier this week the MMA community was stunned when the UFC stripped Irish superstar Conor McGregor of the UFC featherweight championship, and promoted Jose Aldo from the interim featherweight champion to the undisputed featherweight champion. The move came after UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was forced out of his UFC 206 headlining fight with Anthony Johnson due to a torn groin. With Cormier vs. Johnson off the card, the promotion struggled to find a replacement opponent for Johnson, ultimately leading to the decision to strip McGregor of the belt, and promote Jose Aldo so as to make the co-main event scrap between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis an interim featherweight title fight.

bjpenndotcom - November 30, 2016

Over the course of the past week, the UFC has had to fight several wildfires, on several different fronts. The first situation, was UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier withdrawing from his scheduled UFC 206 headlining bout against Anthony Johnson due to a tear in his groin. The promotion’s initial plan was to find a replacement opponent for Johnson, however given that Rumble has not only defeated, but knocked out, every fighter in the top 5 of the light heavyweight division, they were unable to do so. Several men, including middleweights Gegard Mousasi and Tim Kennedy, offered to take the short notice fight with ‘Rumble’ however Johnson has opted to wait for Cormier unless he can find a heavyweight opponent willing to fight.

Tom Taylor - November 27, 2016

Last December, Ireland’s Conor McGregor won the UFC featherweight title with a 13 second knockout of Jose Aldo. In his next fight, he was expected to take on then lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos for a shot at a second UFC belt. When Dos Anjos withdrew from this planned contest with an injury, however, McGregor would take on Nate Diaz on just 11 days’ notice – a fight he would famously lose. From there, McGregor would rematch Diaz, this time walking away with a hard-fought majority decision win. His next and most recent bout would see him get the lightweight title shot he was originally supposed to get against Dos Anjos – though the champion by this point was Eddie Alvarez. McGregor would dominate Alvarez to a second-round TKO, becoming the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously as he did. If math isn’t your strong suit, that’s three fights McGregor has taken since he won the UFC featherweight title almost a year ago – and not one of them was a defense of that title. Though he is an undeniably talented fighter, he’s hardly the picture of an active champion.

bjpenndotcom - November 26, 2016

After period of much speculation, it has now been confirmed that UFC 206 will be headlined by an interim featherweight title fight between former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis and top ranked featherweight Max Holloway. Ariel Helwani broke the story Friday evening, revealing that in the wake of Daniel Cormier withdrawing from his UFC 206 light heavyweight title scrap with Anthony Johnson, the UFC brass could be looking to make the co-main event fight between Pettis and Holloway for the interim featherweight belt.

bjpenndotcom - November 26, 2016

Friday afternoon, unfortunate news surfaced that UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had been forced out of his upcoming UFC 206 scrap with Anthony Johnson on December 10th in Toronto. Cormier’s withdrawal was unexpected, but fortunately will not keep the champ sidelined for too long, as details have emerged on the situation, revealing that ‘DC’ is targeting a March return to the Octagon. With Cormier now off the card, there has been speculation as to what the UFC will do to compensate for the lack of a title fight in the main event of the Pay-Per View card despite the fact that the promotion is currently looking for a replacement opponent for Johnson.

Tom Taylor - November 25, 2016

Just hours ago, news broke that light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier had been forced out of his UFC 206 bout with Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. Given that this bout was expected to serve as the card’s headliner, the UFC will now have to scramble to produce a new main event for the fans attending the event live in Toronto, and those watching it live on screens around the world. When weighing the options for a new main event for UFC 206, the most obvious course of action seems to be finding a replacement opponent for Rumble. The problem here is that Rumble has already defeated most eligible replacement opponents, from Alexander Gustafsson, to Jimi Manuwa, to Ryan Bader to Glover Teixeira. Furthermore, the top contender has suggested he’s not interested in fighting for an interim title, which makes securing a replacement bout for him an even more difficult task.

Russell Ess - October 26, 2016

An exciting featherweight matchup has just been announced by the UFC. Number 3 ranked UFC featherweight Max Holloway is set to face former UFC lightweight champion and current number 6 ranked UFC featherweight Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 on December 10 at the Air Canada Centre.

bjpenndotcom - October 25, 2016

Interim UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has stirred up a bit of controversy recently as he has continued his very public war of words with the UFC brass. After it was announced that Conor McGregor would be moving up to lightweight to challenge Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight strap at UFC 205 on November 12th, Aldo quickly requested his release from the promotion. UFC President Dana White was quick to deny Aldo’s request, stating that the promotion would be happy to get the interim champ fights in the meantime until Conor McGregor either returns to featherweight, or vacates the 145 pound belt. Aldo shot back however, explaining that he wanted to be released so as to retire from MMA and move on to another professional sport completely.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

Max Holloway is currently in quite the odd position in the UFC’s featherweight division. While he currently sits at #3 on the official featherweight rankings behind interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo at #1, and Frankie Edgar at #2, Holloway boasts the longest active win streak in the UFC. Since dropping a unanimous decision to Conor McGregor back in 2013, Holloway has gone on to rattle off 9 straight wins, including finishes of Cub Swanson and Charles Oliveira. In addition, Holloway’s 9-fight win streak includes wins over Jeremy Stephens, and most recently former featherweight title challenger Ricardo Lamas.

bjpenndotcom - September 29, 2016

Max Holloway has been on a campaign for a featherweight title shot, both inside and outside of the octagon. And with a nine-fight win streak, the longest in the featherweight division,  you would think the 24-year-old Hawaiian would have earned a title shot already, but with the logjam that is the current state of the 145 pound division, Holloway’s pursuit for UFC gold remains as uncertain as ever.

bjpenndotcom - September 14, 2016

Max Holloway has officially lost his patience in waiting for a title shot. The 24-year-old Hawaiian is currently riding a nine fight win streak, by far the longest in the featherweight division, yet the man still hasn’t got his shot at gold. Holloway tweeted at interim champion Jose Aldo in frustration on Tuesday night:

bjpenndotcom - August 31, 2016

Hawaiian featherweight Max Holloway sticks with his own when it comes to other fighters, as he threw his support behind fellow Hawaiian BJ Penn in his comeback fight against Ricardo Lamas. “BJ is a legend, it should be a fun fight. If Ricardo tries to stick and move on BJ, take him down and get in BJ’s guard, but BJ can get his back and it’s over,” Holloway said on Monday’s edition of the MMA Hour. “A motivated BJ Penn is a dangerous thing.”