Max Holloway criticizes Islam Makhachev for complaining about a lack of available fights, arguing that Makhachev is only fighting around the times that he wants to fight and is not taking the fights that are offered due to certain circumstances.
Max Holloway’s got a bone to pick with Islam Makhachev. The guy’s been complaining about a lack of fights, and it’s getting under Holloway’s skin.
Makhachev’s been acting all picky, you see. He once turned down a potential face-off with Dustin Poirier. His reason? He thought it made no sense, even though Poirier had just scored a knockout win over Benoit Saint Denis. Later, he aimed for a June date with the ex-interim lightweight champ, despite his earlier reservations.
Holloway’s got a different take on it. He thinks Makhachev’s just not considering his own choices. “I saw Islam talk about, ‘This fight makes no sense,’ and blah blah blah,” Holloway shared on the Mighty video podcast. “I’m like, brother, you should have fought Justin [Gaethje] in February. Why did the guy you knocked out turn around so fast, to fight in February, when you were healthy. You should’ve turned around [and fought in] February.
Holloway continued, “Everybody knew you can’t fight in Ramadan, and that’s how come they couldn’t do the fight [at UFC] 300 and he couldn’t get another fight. But he’s complaining like, ‘I can’t get fights.’ I’m like, you’re only fighting around the times that you want to fight. It’s not that you can’t get fights. You’re just not taking the fights that are offered because of certain things that are going on. If you really wanted to fight, I thought you would have turned around and fought in February.”
Makhachev hasn’t fought since last October. Back then, he knocked out then-featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski in a rematch of their 2023 meeting. That put Gaethje, who this past July knocked out Poirier in a rematch, in pole position for a title shot. But instead, Gaethje was booked to face Holloway at UFC 300.
Holloway’s moving up in weight for the second time since his 2019 bid for the interim lightweight title. Poirier won that one via unanimous decision. There was a lot of confusion about why Gaethje took the Holloway bout with a potential title shot on the line, but Holloway backed his opponent.
“What’s Justin going to do, wait?” he said.
Holloway’s opinion is likely to fall on deaf ears with the current lightweight champ, not to mention hardcore MMA fans. But of course, if he’s able to upset Gaethje, he is certain to get everyone’s attention.
“A lot of people are giving me stuff, like, ‘You’re wasting your time,’” he said. “And I just have to remind them – I don’t know if you ever watched the movie Troy, but it’s like, ‘That’s why no one is going to remember your name.’”
You can catch Holloway’s full interview with former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson on the Mighty podcast.