Max Holloway has no interest in a rematch with Conor McGregor.
The former UFC featherweight champion said the company had plans for a potential scrap between Holloway and McGregor had the Notorious One won his last bout against Dustin Poirier in January. McGregor defeated Holloway back in 2013 in a three-round unanimous decision, but the 29-year-old Hawaiian has developed into a star since that bout.
Holloway said McGregor's loss in that fight gives little motivation for a fight to be booked:
“[Holloway vs. McGregor] was on a very short list for UFC if everything went well in [Conor's] last fight and it didn't,” Holloway said, via TMZ.
“And I don't wanna kick a dog when it's down. At the end of the day, we'll see what happens.”
Conor McGregor has fought just three times in the UFC since 2018.The former two-division champion suffered a submission loss to undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018 in the most highly anticipated mixed martial arts fight of all time. McGregor returned to the Octagon in January 2020, earning a TKO victory over Donald Cerrone in a welterweight bout. But the coronavirus pandemic threw McGregor's schedule for a loop.
McGregor and Poirier essentially manifested a second fight between the two after they first matched up in a lightweight bout in 2014. Poirier knocked McGregor out in the second round.
Meanwhile, Holloway responded to a questionable loss in his rematch with current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 251 by dominating Calvin Kattar in January. In fact, it was a performance many said was one of the greatest of all time.
It might be fair to wonder whether the UFC would have tried to book a McGregor-Holloway rematch for the lightweight title if McGregor defeated Poirier and Nurmagomedov vacated the belt. Holloway has shown an interest in moving to lightweight, and it would have been an enormous draw.
Instead, both Conor McGregor and Max Holloway's fighting futures are somewhat unclear.
Follow Us
Subscribe