UFC 218 headlines the featherweight championship rematch where the reigning featherweight champion Max Holloway once again stopped the former featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo with punches in the third round via TKO to retain his belt.
Max “Blessed” Holloway may not seem to be interested in UFC lightweight champ Conor Mcgregor, but Notorious seems to be interested in him. The Irish superstar tweeted about Holloway following his impressive third-round win over Jose Aldo at UFC 218, but the message was not complimentary. They both caught up trash talking on twitter following UFC 218 event.
Holloway recently speaking with The MMA Hour, said how McGregor made a crack about his appearance.
“When a bully pulls your hair, you punch him in the face,” Holloway told Ariel Helwani.
“You know, it’s funny. The guy’s funny, I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m on his mind apparently.
“Like I said, I told you guys, I’m a champion, and we just brought order back to the division. I’m trying to think of our division and respect all the other fighters.”
That in itself was a bit of a blister against McGregor, who kept the featherweight crown for a year but never defended it.
“It took me 10 fights to get the damn interim title shot and then 11 to get an undisputed shot. It’s my duty to make sure everything runs smoothly. I gotta respect our sport, my division and the guys that are fighting in it. That’s what I gotta do. At the end of the day, this guy is gonna keep yapping.”
Max Holloway and Conor Mcgregor have a history, back in 2013 they fought and McGregor won the fight by unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 26.
“This guy has got a win over me when we were kids in a Fight Night show — I think the main event was (Chael) Sonnen and (Mauricio) “Shogun” Rua. I don’t know if the two of them are in the UFC anymore,” he said.
“You know me and him made 12K that night and I think he’s happy to hold onto that. That’s the kind of person he is.
“(UFC) asked me about the Conor fight at 155 when I was signing my new contract like I told you guys, but I heard he was trying to fight Paulie Malignaggi in MMA. … I don’t know what else you want me to say.”
Holloway isn’t impressed with enigmatic Notorious, who’s unwilling to fight the toughest fighters now that he’s got the power to call his chances.
“He holds his head high over that win, I would never. Look at what I did. I fought someone who people consider and who I consider the greatest of all time. I gave him his straight rematch. I didn’t care.
“If you want to be the best you’ve got the beat the best, and the best is ‘Blessed,’ baby.”
Holloway went on to say that he is willing to fight with Mcgregor, if the fight doesn’t come to terms, he will be blamed for that.
“Tell him I’ll be waiting. If that fight doesn’t happen it’s not on our side, it’s on his. Right now, I’m focused on champ life,” said Holloway.
“When the exhibition fights come up and I have choices to make I can start calling out boxing guys and tell them, ‘come over to MMA, big shot.’ We’ll see what happens, but it’s just funny, you know? It’s funny.”
“I’m quite surprised because every time they talk about this guy’s UFC career, one name doesn’t come up and that’s Max Holloway. It’s me.
“For him to bring me up is actually funny. It’s surprising, it’s hilarious and we’ll see what happens. He’s still retired in my eyes. When he comes back and wants to fight a real MMA fighter let me know.
“Until then it’s like I said, if a bully pulls your hair, you’ve got to turn around and punch him in the face.”
Do you guys think we will ever see Mcgregor and Holloway fight again?