Back in 2012, when Max Holloway made his UFC debut against Dustin Poirier, he became the youngest fighter on the UFC’s roster.
Now, at 33, Holloway has been fighting a who’s who of top-ranked contenders for nearly 15 years, and the way he sees things, so long as he can continue to hang with the best of the best, he’ll keep fighting.
Despite that, while speaking in a video posted by with Taisei Discovers, Holloway indicated that he has just two to three more years left before riding off into the sunset.
“My fighting career is gonna go as long as I can still compete with the top echelon. When I get to the point where I’m not competing with the top guys and it kind of just looks like I’m barely hanging in there with guys who are not top and like mid guys, you need to go.
“As long as I can keep my body healthy. If I could tell you right now I would think I’d have two more years, maybe like four fights, maybe five fights, two, three more years, but we’ll see what happens.”
You can see his comments in the video below, beginning at the 32:45 mark.
Considering Holloway is heading into his UFC 318 fight with Dustin Poirier ranked fifth at 155, another two to three years gives him enough time to make a run at lightweight gold.
Max Holloway Wants to Keep the BMF Belt Alive
Although Max Holloway lost the featherweight title to Ilia Topuria, his BMF title wasn’t up for grabs when the two shared the Octagon at UFC 308.
Given that the upcoming UFC 318 headliner will be Dustin Poirier’s last fight, Holloway wants to make sure that the UFC doesn’t retire the BMF belt alongside The Diamond.
As he explained in the aforementioned Taisei Discovers video, he’s set on making sure the BMF belt lives on:
“I’m hearing people say that if he wins, then they take the title away and they retire the title, so I’m like, bro, this ain’t happening.
At the end of the day, I’m good friends with the Korean Zombie. I retired one legend, hopefully we can keep the ball rolling on retirements, and I can get this one.”
Holloway Closes Door on Return to 145
Ahead of Max Holloway’s upcoming fight with Dustin Poirier, the former featherweight kingpin is still ranked as the No. 1 contender at 145 on UFC.com.
Although he remains one of the best featherweights in UFC history, at this stage of his career, Holloway has no interest in making the cut back down to 145.
While speaking with MMAJunkie’s Mike Bohn, he questioned why he’s still the No. 1 contender at featherweight while closing the door on a potential return to 145 down the line:
“I don’t know what the UFC or, I mean, you guys are the ones who vote on the rankings, right? I don’t know what you guys are thinking keeping me No. 1 contender there, ’cause that’s kind of ridiculous. I’m not going back down to ’45. I’m over it.”
As Holloway went on to explain, fighting at 155 is much more fun, and the way he sees things, it’s a no-brainer to stay at lightweight.
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