Max Holloway deserves to fight at home in Hawaii, but will he move up to face Conor or Khabib?

·Senior boxing/MMA columnist

10 December 2018 at 1:19 am

Max Holloway, holding the Hawaii state flag, celebrates his victory over Brian Ortega in their UFC featherweight championship fight at UFC 231 on Dec. 8, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Getty Images)

TORONTO — The thing he loves to do more than anything else in the world was nearly taken away from him. Twice in 2018, Max Holloway was set to fight and twice, he was yanked from the bout for medical reasons.

He admitted that it put him into a depression.

“I missed it, and I mean that,” Holloway said after an impressive fourth-round stoppage of Brian Ortega on Saturday in their featherweight title fight in the main event of UFC 231 at the Scotiabank Arena. “I talked about depression earlier in the week. I love this so much and I got it taken away from me. I couldn’t even train, but I finally got to go in there and do my thing.”

And do it he did. He’s been one of the great champions in the UFC in the last two years, but against one of his most difficult challengers, he stepped up his game. He set records for most significant strikes landed (290) in a fight; most strikes landed in a fight (307) and became the UFC’s all-time striking leader.

He’s only 27 and getting better.

“I thought he looked better than he’s ever looked,” UFC president Dana White said. “It was his greatest performance and I thought he looked great against [Jose] Aldo.”

Ortega entered unbeaten at 14-0 and presented a wide range of challenges. He is an elite submission artist and has the kind of one-punch power that can change a fight.

He also showed another remarkable skill on Saturday. Ortega’s chin now has to rank among the best in the UFC, though that’s not something to brag about.

“Sometimes, guys can be too tough for their own good,” White said.

As great as Ortega fought, he was no match for Holloway, who unleashed his right hand early and didn’t stop. First, it was a right hand. Then, it was a jab, a right hand and then a hook.

The few times Ortega managed to get his hands on him, Holloway wiggled free and avoided getting in a bad spot where Ortega might have had a chance for a submission.

“Surprise, surprise, surprise,” Holloway said as he walked into the post-fight news conference.

It was Holloway’s first fight since he beat Aldo in a rematch on Dec. 10, 2017. But his performance was hardly a surprise given he’d entered the bout having won 12 in a row and included among them were some of the best fighters of recent vintage.

After nearly one year out of the Octagon, Max Holloway battered and bruised Brian Ortega to retain his featherweight title at UFC 231 in Toronto on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018. (AP)

White said there is nothing more for Holloway to do at featherweight, and said he hoped he’d move to lightweight. Holloway appeared open to both, though fights against lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, ex-champion Conor McGregor, former interim champion Tony Ferguson or Dustin Poirier would be huge bouts.

Holloway loves what he does and said he was ready to go another five rounds.

Holloway has three losses — to Poirier in 2012 in his UFC debut and to McGregor and Dennis Bermudez in back-to-back fights in 2013 — but he’s nowhere near the same fighter now that he was then.

“The top 20 featherweights now, even the top 30 featherweights would beat that Max,” Holloway said of his younger self.

There aren’t, however, too many who are going to beat him now.

He’s in his prime and moving inexorably up that pound-for-pound list. White said he may be the greatest featherweight ever, though Holloway said he still considers Aldo the best featherweight.

He credited his coaches for his remarkable improvement, though he’s the one in there throwing the punches and brilliantly defending the takedowns which allows him to keep fights on his feet, where he excels. But Holloway also has submissions and adds things to his arsenal each time out.

He was supposed to fight Nurmagomedov at UFC 223 for what was then the vacant lightweight title, but was pulled by the New York State Athletic Commission before the fight because of issues in his weight cut.

He then was slated to fight Ortega in July, but was pulled when he showed concussion-like symptoms after an interview earlier in the week. He never disclosed exactly what happened, though he hinted that something nefarious may have happened in Las Vegas.

The UFC was so concerned about him it had Renato Moicano training as a backup fighter in case Holloway, or Ortega, couldn’t go. Ironically, Moicano failed to make the 145-pound championship limit, though it didn’t matter when both Holloway and Ortega did.

Holloway was in a loose mood and during the fight was chatting with his young son at ringside, as well as UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan.

He was willing to roll with the punches regarding his next opponent, as well. The only thing he was the least bit insistent upon was fighting at home in Hawaii.

After what he’s done the last five years, it would be hard to deny him that chance.