The UFC Asked Max Holloway About Fighting Conor McGregor at Lightweight

A fight that could be more important than Max Holloway’s win over Jose Aldo is fast approaching in December. He’ll be defending the title for the first time against Frankie Edgar on a stacked Detroit event, the guy that everyone said Conor McGregor avoided while he was at featherweight. However, the UFC may have had another plan in mind, or at least a back-up plan to a back-up plan. During Holloway’s recent contract renegotiation, the UFC gauged his interest in moving up to lightweight to potentially challenge McGregor.

“If [the fight with Conor McGregor] happens, it happens. He said 155. When we were talking about the contract, UFC came to me and they were talking about 155. They also talked to me about Conor a little bit. They were asking me about it and then they came to me with the Frankie [Edgar] fight and it was weird. We got the Frankie fight, like I said, I wanted this a year ago. Now, we got to fight Frankie, he’s got the fight now. When we were talking about the contract they said, ‘What about [155] would you go up there?’ Then they asked about Conor. If they wanted me to go up there and fight him, I’d fight him any day. They kept talking about it, but at the end of the day Frankie was the one.”

Media day in Detroit #UFC218 pic.twitter.com/tAR0pGDCkA

— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) October 12, 2017

“Everyone keeps saying, ‘[Conor McGregor would] murder you now’ and I’m like, ‘That’s cool, that’s your opinion.’ People keep saying, ‘Max, you’re not the money fight’, and I’m like, ‘Perfect, you’re proving me right. This guy is fighting exhibition matches, of course I’m not the money fight.’ There are levels to being a champion. I’ve said it before, the casuals don’t really know about [Demetrious Johnson]. If a guy just came in and started watching UFC, they see Conor walking with his two belts and then they see DJ, you know, the greatest of all time. Does DJ walk around with ten belts? No, he walks around with one of his belts – that one belt. He doesn’t walk around with ten of his belts, but champ life is hard for people sometimes. They don’t want to take it on.” – Max Holloway on The MMA Hour.

There’s no doubt a featherweight champion versus lightweight champion match-up would be awesome to see. It actually would mirror McGregor’s jump up at UFC 205 when he challenge Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight title. Of course, Tony Ferguson just won the interim lightweight belt and is gunning to make McGregor defend. Meanwhile, McGregor can pretty much choose whoever he wants. With a convincing win over Edgar at UFC 218 though, Max Holloway may be able to jump earn some extra entries into the red panty lottery going on. And who knows, someone could always get injured and need to be replaced. It’s happened multiple times to Conor McGregor. one man’s misfortune could lead to Max Holloway’s good luck.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/12/2017.