Max Holloway has carved out a unique legacy for himself in mixed martial arts.
The former longtime featherweight champion and recently-crowned ‘BMF’ can lay claim to authoring some of the most spectacular moments in UFC history, such as his mid-fight boxing lesson to Brian Ortega or his sensational stand-up performance against Calvin Kattar back in January 2021.
More recently, Holloway was responsible for the single most memorable moment of 2024 when he pointed to the canvas in the final seconds of his UFC 300 clash with Justin Gaethje in a bid to call his opponent into a firefight, leaving Gaethje face-first on the canvas moments later.
On Saturday night in Abu Dhabi, Holloway will attempt to regain the UFC’s 145-pound title from the unbeaten Ilia Topuria — who has claimed he will invite Holloway into a similar exchange in the opening seconds. But the Hawaiian says that Topuria doesn’t yet have the required clout to pull off such a move.
“It just makes no sense,” Holloway told The Mac Life and other reports in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. “At the end of the day, I don’t think he deserves [that]. You gotta earn that right. I don’t think he earned that right. I mean, you know the guy that he’s copycatting [Conor McGregor]. He’s a copycat, down to the tattoos, his aura, the way he’s approaching fights, he’s a copycat.
“I think you gotta earn that moment. I believe he could have earned it with Josh Emmett in their five-round war. Josh Emmett was trying to swing if you guys can go back to that fight and watch what happened… When Josh Emmett was trying to swing, someone shot [a takedown] and someone held someone down for the rest of the fight.
“I think the moment needs to be earned,” he added. “He’s just trying to steal stuff, you know? He’s already tried to steal one person’s aura and now he’s trying to steal somebody else’s thing. It’s amazing.”
Topuria has as of yet had no equal in the UFC, and in his last fight he became the first 145-pound fighter to own a win over Alexander Volkanovski — a fighter who holds three wins over Holloway. As such, the challenger certainly isn’t overlooking his opponent.
“He an animal. He’s good,” he said. “A lot of people forget that when he came into the UFC, he got right in as a grappler and wrestler. That’s what he was [but] he came into the UFC and started knocking dudes out. His boxing is nice. As a fight, you cannot be a hater and say he’s not good. Is he proven? He did what he had to do when he had to do it to get to the position he has so there’s no disrespect to that.
“But he gets to see me come Saturday night, so that should be fun.”
