Max Holloway loves the idea of adding a BMF title to his collection.
Blessed has grappled with the ruthlessness of the UFC’s top ten featherweights for years, but his inability to win the major title against 145-pound king Alexander Volkanowski has made Max Holloway take a long, hard look at the trajectory of his combat sports career. There aren’t many men left within the division for Holloway to deal with, but “Blessed” is hoping he can land a long-awaited match with fan favorite Chan Sung Jung, known to fans as the Korean Zombie.
“I called him out, and he responded very quickly, so the ball is in the UFC’s court,” Holloway said Wednesday. MMA watch With Ariel Halawani. “The ball’s in there. I love it. Like I said, I told everyone, since that time when the WEC was coming up, I fought most of those guys. Ricardo Lamas, [Jose] aldo, [Anthony] Bettis, Dustin Poirier. It’s someone I haven’t gotten around to yet. I couldn’t get it. It’s still here, it’s still in the top 10 – I think it’s #7 or whatever – so it makes sense. One quarrel, I heard he wanted to retire, so why not go out in an uproar?
“I have no idea [why it hasn’t been booked yet]Holloway continued. “I never heard anything. All I know is that I called him,” he replied with a cute video message, so let’s figure it out(h/t fighting MMA).
Max Holloway teases the possibility of moving up to lightweight after scrap with Korean zombies
While Max Holloway is chomping a bit to cross a Korean zombie off his setlist, his future under the UFC banner remains a mystery. After losing world title fights against Volkanovski on three separate occasions, fans aren’t exactly demanding to see a fourth fight between the two. Alternatively, Blessed could find himself moving up to the lightweight division where a host of interesting matches await him. The division will also soon be home to the UFC’s official bragging belt, the BMF Championship.
“Sure, there are other belts.” Holloway said. “…But it’s always better to go to a different division with a belt on. That’s just the way it is. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see how July ends, we’ll see how my next fight ends, and we’ll see. Who knows? We’ve seen that fun belt BMF, with Gaethje and Poirier… Poirier and I fought twice [already] And people keep teasing me about Gaethje anyway.
“At the end of the day, that’s going to be fun in ’55. I know there are a lot of fun fights for me in ’55, maybe [Charles] Oliveira two, and of course I couldn’t finish it off with Habib [Nurmagomedov] But Islam [Makhachev] Is there even that would be a great thing. …we’ll see what happens. Like I said, we’ll see the land of the land. never say never. I know people who cheer for the BMF belt. This BMF belt would look really cool in my ensemble.”
Max Holloway once competed before in the lightweight division, challenging Dustin Poirier for the interim 155-pound crown at UFC 236. “Blessed” came up short in the title tilt largely due to his lack of size and strength at lightweight. This will undoubtedly be an issue that needs to be addressed before attempting to make the move on a more permanent basis.