Max Holloway reacts following title loss to Alex Volkanovski

Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway has given his thoughts on losing his belt to Alex Volkanovski in the co-main event of UFC 245.

Holloway dropped a unanimous decision to Volkanovski with the judges scoring it 48-47, 48-47 and 50-45 in favor of the challenger. The loss snapped Holloway’s long winning streak in the UFC featherweight division, and we now have a new champion at 145lbs in Volkanovski.

Following the event, Holloway spoke to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto about his performance in the fight. Here’s what “Blessed” said.

“It is what it is. It’s a fight, you know what I mean? If you could be undefeated that’d be amazing, you know? But at the end of the day not that many mixed martial artists are undefeated, only a few are. It’s my second loss in 2019. We’re a couple of weeks away from New Year’s. New year, new me. Blessed era’s still in full effect in 2020,” Holloway said.

The loss to Volkanovski dropped Holloway’s record to just 1-2 in 2019, with another loss to Dustin Poirier and a win over Frankie Edgar. Considering Holloway had won 13 straight fights heading into the year, it’s been a bit surprising to see him lose twice. But Holloway isn’t too upset about it.

“I think these ups and downs are meant to be. This is how you build a path, this is how you become the greatest of all time, you gotta go through these moments and I live for all these moments. The ups, the downs, the good times, the great times, and we’ll go from there,” Holloway said.

The former champ said that his team told him he was winning the fight and Holloway agreed at the time. But he said he would sit down and watch the fight back and see what he can take away from the matchup given that the judges didn’t agree.

As for a rematch, Holloway said that he’s up for it if that’s what the fans want, but admits it’s ultimately up to UFC president Dana White.

What do you think should be next for Max Holloway following UFC 245?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 12/15/2019.