UFC 276, The Morning After: Lightweight Max?

The time is now for former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight king Max Holloway to make his jump to the lightweight division.

Holloway, who remains one of the best 145-pound fighters of all-time, lost his third fight to current UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski last night (Sat., July 2, 2022) at UFC 276 live on ESPN+ PPV from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was one of the most lopsided losses of Holloway’s professional career and a victory for Volkanovski that solidified his status as the best featherweight in the world today.

While Holloway still has time to fight his way back to another title shot it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to do something like that considering the currant champion holds three wins over him. “Blessed” would have to do quite a lot to put himself back in that position and earn a shot over another featherweight contender that has yet to fight Volkanovski. That is why now is the best time for Holloway to make his jump to lightweight.

Holloway, who turns 31 this December, has talked about a permanent move to lightweight for a little while now. The former featherweight champ even made a move up to 155 pounds to fight Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title back at UFC 236 in 2019. Holloway ended up losing, but he gave Poirier a true run for his money. As any fight fan knows Poirier is one of the best lightweight fighters in the world today and was absolutely on fire back in 2018-2019.

What would make Holloway’s move to lightweight even more beneficial would be the fact that “Blessed” no longer has to cut down to 145 pounds. Holloway has never really had an issue with cutting weight, but he’s been doing it for over 10 years now and has put a lot of miles on his body. Giving himself the opportunity to hold onto some more muscle and not deplete himself so much leading into 25-minute wars could really help his longevity down the road.

Holloway, who hasn’t fought a three-round fight since 2016, is going to want to fight his way back to a title one way or another. Moving up to lightweight will give him the best chance to do that and it opens up a long list of potential matchups between “Blessed” and the best 155-pound fighters in the world today. Holloway has destroyed every other featherweight not named Volkanovski since his loss to Conor McGregor back in 2013 and has so much to offer a new weight class. He has proven to be one of the best strikers in the sport today and arguably the most durable.

What say you, Maniacs? Is now the time for Holloway to move to lightweight?

Sound off!

For complete UFC 276 results and coverage click here.