Waiting For A Title Shot ‘Doesn’t Work’ For Holloway

“You wait in this sport, the sport goes by you. And it goes by you quick. So all you can do is stay busy, you know?”

Max Holloway has no regrets over agreeing to fight Justin Gaethje for the BMF belt at UFC 300, even if some fans believe it may cost him a featherweight title shot.

Ilia Topuria finished Alexander Volkanovski definitively at UFC 298 to take the 145 pound belt, opening up an opportunity for “Blessed” to step in and fight “El Matador” in his first title defense. Holloway will have to get past Gaethje first at lightweight, which is no small task.

In a new YouTube video, Max explained why he accepted that fight rather than wait and see how Volkanovski vs. Topuria shook out.

“There’s a lot of people talking about like, ‘Oh, this fight is crazy, Why you guys are doing this fight?’” Holloway said. “‘Why, why Max? Why don’t you just wait for Topuria? Why don’t you just wait?’ Not a lot of people know: this game, it it goes by you fast, man. It goes by you quick.”

“Nothing is promised. How many times do we see someone promised a title shot and it never happened? How much time do you see someone fight for an interim title shot and it never happens? Me and Gaethje were the next guys respectfully up in our title shot. Correct? But how many times does that work? It doesn’t work all the time. So with the Topuria thing everybody keeps saying, ‘Oh, you’re the next one.’ It’s like, am I really?”

“I thought this whole time that if Topuria beat Volk in any way, Volk gets a direct rematch,” he continued. “Volk did enough work to earn himself a direct rematch. And everybody’s like, ‘Oh yeah, but after the knockout,’ and blah blah. Volk still earns it. He still earns it. He did what he did. He has a bunch of title defensive. Just because he went up a weight class and lost, I don’t think it should affect him at his own weight class.”

“So at the end of the day, I always thought that if Topuria won, no matter what, I would still be waiting because Volk would get a direct rematch. And with the Gaethje situation, it’s like who knew that Charles was gonna get a bad cut, and Islam couldn’t turn around and fight?”

“You wait in this sport, the sport goes by you,” Holloway concluded. “And it goes by you quick. So all you can do is stay busy, you know? I am blessed with the opportunity to be in this situation with with Justin Gaethje.”

Max Holloway and Justin Gaethje throw down at UFC 300 on April 13th.