Why It’s Time For Max Holloway To Leave The Featherweight Division

Holloway’s Frame

To start, Max “Blessed” Holloway wouldn’t necessarily be undersized for the division, Holloway is 5 feet and 11 inches tall, to put that into perspective, current Lightweight champ- Islam Makhachev is 5 feet and 10 inches tall. Holloway has hinted that his walk-around weight could be over 180 lbs. Here’s an example, for instance, do you remember when Holloway was going to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov on six days’ notice after Tony Ferguson withdrew from the bout at UFC 223? Holloway was deemed medically unfit and unable to safely cut the weight to meet the 155-pound requirement for the title bout.

After the bout withdraw on the part of Holloway, Ariel Helwani asked if he weighed more than 180 pounds before accepting the fight, Holloway responded, “Maybe.” Look at Holloway’s weigh-ins comparison courtesy of The Mac Life’s YouTube channel if you need any more reasoning.

He looks a lot healthier at 155, honestly, he still would cut a lot of weight even for lightweight but his frame supports it better. Even at his past weigh-in for UFC Kansas City, he looked rough. Holloway has to be among the promotion’s heaviest weight cutters. Holloway isn’t getting any younger either (31 years old).

The Champ Said It Best

Alexander Volkanovksi has recently explained an encounter he had with Holloway following their third fight, Volkanovski told The Mac Life “I just said to him (Holloway) ‘Get out of my division, and stop beating up my contenders’ You know what I mean? I’m saying stuff like that to him.” Volkanovski gave credit to Holloway for his performance this past weekend, “A lot of people are going to sit there and before last night, ‘Oh you know, he’s fallen off,’ and all of this type of stuff.” Volkanoski continued, “You wait until he fights again, you’re going to forget about that the next time and he proved it last night, he looked great.”

Volkanovski is right, “Blessed” has defeated all of the top potential challengers looking to have their shot at Volkanovski, such as Calvin Kattar, Yair Rodriguez, and now Arnold Allen. Besides that, Holloway is (0-3) and after the dominant performance from Volkanovski in their last bout, it’s really hard to see a potential fourth bout or a title shot at featherweight at all for that matter. Maybe Holloway is waiting to see if Rodriguez can dethrone “The Great” Volkanovski. Still, Holloway has defeated most of the top of the division, Holloway is currently ranked #2 in the division, so he’d be fighting opponents he’s already beaten or guys three or more rankings below him. Sure there are a few fresh matchups that are exciting but this brings me to my next point.

Fresh Exciting Matchups With A Goal

Out of the current top 15 at Lightweight, Holloway has only fought two of them (Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier), and with that being said, Holloway didn’t defeat either. The Holloway-McGregor fight was back in August of 2013, nearly ten years ago and the bout was at Featherweight. A lot has happened and things have changed since then, the two have definitely talked about a rematch numerous times since, look at the recent video of McGregor poking fun at a Holloway-look-alike for instance.

A Poirier rematch could work, that interim title bout was four years ago and is Holloway’s only bout at Lightweight in the UFC, but even still, there are so many fresh and exciting matchups, you’ve got Gaethje, Ferguson, Chandler, Fiziev, RDA, and the list goes on and on. Even ignoring all of that, wouldn’t the chance of capturing a second title interest Holloway enough? It definitely would be exciting, in my opinion.

So what do you think, should Holloway stay at Featherweight or make the jump to Lightweight? Let us know in the comments below!

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