Max Holloway says there should be no concern surrounding his move back down to featherweight ahead of UFC 308.
Holloway (26-7 MMA, 22-7 UFC) challenges 145-pound champion Ilia Topuria (15-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) in the UFC 308 main event Oct. 26 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Holloway is coming off a last-second knockout of Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 in a lightweight bout to claim the BMF title. It was Holloway’s second crack at 155 pounds in the UFC, but this time, he went through a proper process of building into the necessary frame.
Now Holloway must drop back down to 145 pounds to face Topuria, and he is confident in his team.
“Everybody keeps talking about the weight coming into this fight,” Holloway said on his YouTube channel. “The whole question before the last fight was the weight, and now the whole question about this fight is the weight because of what we did in the last fight. But it is what it is. I got the best person behind me. I got my wife, she’s chefing it up, and I got my man Tyler Minton back on the team. He’s going to be out there with us fight week, and he’s one of the best guys in the biz.
“I’ve never missed weight. I’ve never missed no weight in my whole career, and I ain’t planning on starting to miss weight for this fight because this fight, it took a whole lot of work to get back here. People said that I shouldn’t be here, that I should have done something else, I should focus on something else, I’m done, I’m past what I can do in this sport. But then again, we’re here, and we’re fighting for a world title against this new generation that they’re talking about.”
According to DraftKings, Holloway is a +220 underdog against undefeated Topuria, who’s a -270 favorite.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.
