History, legacy drove Max Holloway to accept UFC 223 challenge

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway was met with a great deal of skepticism when he was telling people on Sunday he had agreed to the biggest fight of his career on six-days’ notice.

Such is the danger of making such a massive decision on April Fools’ Day.

“I couldn’t get anyone to believe me,” he said of agreeing to fight undefeated star Khabib Nurmagomedov for the lightweight title in the main event of UFC 223 at Barclays Center. The bout headlines a pay-per-view card that also includes a women’s strawweight title rematch between champion Rose Namajunas and former champ Joanna Jedrzejczyk.

Holloway, a winner of 12 consecutive fights, had only been back in training for a bit over a week after recovering from an ankle injury that forced him out of his scheduled title defense against Frankie Edgar in Las Vegas when he got the call inquiring about his availability to replace an injured Tony Ferguson.

It was an easy decision.

“This is about legacy,” Holloway said at a Wednesday news conference in Williamsburg. “This guy is the best freaking fighter in the world. Nobody wants to fight him. I want a piece of him.”

It’s not like he hadn’t thought about the matchup. Holloway has mentioned a potential fight with Nurmagomedov on several occasions, though it was generally under the pretense of a future champion against champion bout. He also interjected at a news conference in January that he would be ready to step in when either Ferguson or Nurmagomedov inevitably pulled out of this fight.

The words proved prophetic, though it didn’t take a psychic to predict the bout would fall apart. This is the fourth time Ferguson and Nurmagomedov have been scheduled to fight and the fourth time it has been canceled.

Ferguson’s loss is Holloway’s gain. He can become just the second fighter in UFC history to concurrently hold belts in two different weight classes should he pull the upset as a plus-350 underdog on Saturday.

It would also set up a massive payday for a rematch against the other man to accomplish the feat, Conor McGregor, who is also the last man to beat Holloway in 2013.

McGregor was stripped of the featherweight belt in late 2016 before Holloway won it. He will be stripped of the lightweight belt on Saturday night when it is awarded to the winner.

Holloway knows there will be a whole lot of doors open to him with a win, but he’s got to get there first.

“I only took this fight 48 hours ago,” he said. “After the fight, we’ll sit down and talk business.”

He may be in for a battle before he even gets the chance to step in the cage. Holloway won’t get into specifics about what he weighs, but his nutritionist George Lockhart made no qualms about this being among the most challenging weight cuts he has ever worked on with a fighter.

While Holloway usually has to cut to 145 pounds and now only has to make 155 by Friday morning, he typically has a whole training camp to do it.

Now it’s just a matter of hours.

None of it seems to bother Holloway, a 26-year-old Hawaiian who was playing the video game Fortnite with his son when he got the offer to take this fight.

“Everybody keeps talking about me taking the fight on six-days’ notice,” he said. “Guess what? He has to take a fight with me on six-days’ notice. Now they keep asking about my weight. I’ll tell you this: I’ll have 30 extra pounds on me on Saturday night when I leave with those two belts. That’s the weight that matters.”

Nurmagomedov, who indicated he wouldn’t have agreed to the fight had he been in Holloway’s shoes, appreciates his opponent saving the card.

That feeling ends once the bell rings.

“One week ago, he was on vacation drinking beer and I was training for a five-round fight,” Nurmagomedov said. “He’s going in there looking for a lucky punch.

“I very much respect Max for taking the fight, but Saturday is going to be a long night for him.”

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Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.