Dana White says current featherweight champion Max Holloway is ‘too big’ to keep fighting at 145-pounds

UFC President Dana White believes current featherweight champion Max Holloway is ‘too big’ to keep fighting in the promotions 145-pound division.

Max Holloway is set to put his featherweight title on the line against undefeated contender Brian Ortega in the main event of this Saturday’s UFC 231 event in Toronto.

The Hawaiian champion has not competed since defeating Jose Aldo via third-round TKO in their rematch at UFC 218.

“Blessed” has been scheduled to fight on three occasions since his victory over Aldo.

Max Holloway was booked to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222, but was ultimately forced to withdraw from the contest due to injury.

Then in April, Holloway stepped up on short-notice to take a fight with current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. That fight also failed to come to fruition, this after Max suffered issues with his weight cut.

Lastly, Max Holloway was expected to defend his title against the aforementioned Brian Ortega this past summer. However, after suffering from concussion-like symptoms, the UFC opted to pull “Blessed” from the fight.

Despite the Hawaiian’s recent issues making the walk to the octagon, UFC President Dana White says he is not nervous about Max Holloway making it to the cage on Saturday night in Toronto.

“It’s weird. I’m not nervous, but I should be,” Dana White told MMAjunkie‘s John Morgan. “You know, I didn’t want him to fight again at ’45. He wanted this fight so bad. He got cleared by every test and doctor and everything we’ve done. Came in light this week, so we’ll see what happens. Yeah, it would be really bad if he didn’t make weight.”

The UFC boss continued:

“I think he needs to go to ’55,” White stated. “He’s too big for this weight (145lbs). You can’t keep doing this to yourself and cutting to ’45. But you know what he wanted? He wants this Ortega fight. He wants to fight Ortega so bad. This is the fight he wanted. He got it. He medically got cleared, and he got what he wanted.”

Do you think Max Holloway will be able to hand Brian Ortega the first loss of his professional career at Saturday’s UFC 231 event in Toronto? Sound off in the comments section PENN Nation!