Max Holloway is all geared up to reclaim the UFC featherweight title in his upcoming battle against Ilia Topuria at UFC 308. After a successful stint at 155lbs where he slayed Justin Gaethje to become the BMF title holder at the historic UFC 300 PPV. However, despite his upcoming challenge being set to headline the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, it seems like Holloway is not done with the lightweight division yet.

But why? Well, that’s because ‘Blessed’ now wishes to go one-on-one against the lightweight king, Islam Makhachev. However, according to the 32-year-old, the Dagestani fighter is running away from the challenge. Back in 2018, Max Holloway was scheduled to compete against the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov for the 155lbs division gold. However, the UFC 223 matchup never materialized, as the New York State Athletic Commission claimed that the weight cut could prove to be unsafe for the Hawaiian native.

But now he wishes to get his dream fight in the form of Islam Makhachev, who is the closest to his mentor in terms of style and pace. Holloway recently joined Demetrious Johnson on his ‘MIGHTYCast’ podcast and revealed, “You’ve got to do great things. We had that fight booked with Khabib a while back. They call Islam the Khabib 2.0, so I want all the taste; I want all the smoke. It’d be an honor to fight that guy and try to etch my name in the history book.”

However, ‘Blessed’ further claimed that the Russian fighter never wanted to fight him. In fact, he says that he was running away from the fight instead. But now, even Makhachev has accepted the challenge. “Islam never, ever wanted to fight me, even when I was saying I was coming up to (155). After fighting the guy that he was supposed to fight next, he still was saying, I don’t know why I would fight him. But then recently his tone changed where he was like, Oh yeah, if I can get past Topuria, he’d be open to fight me. I was like, OK, that’s all we needed. We just needed that little crack in the door. I’ll squeeze my way through the rest; don’t worry about it.”

Well, it surely would be an interesting fight to see. The Dagestani phenom could surely face his biggest challenge against Max Holloway, especially, after that outing at UFC 300. However, Holloway believes that his iconic knockout at UFC’s landmark event wasn’t his best performance yet; in fact, the best is yet to come at UFC 308.

Max Holloway has high hopes for the Ilia Topuria fight

Max Holloway’s outing against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 will go down in immortality as one of the most incredible sequences in UFC history. However, the Hawaiian assures that he is cooking something even more amazing when he faces Ilia Topuria, the reigning 145-pound champion at UFC 308. In a video shared with subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘Blessed’ shared a special message for his fans.

He said, “Everybody thought UFC 300 was amazing. Wait until they get to see the outcome of UFC 308; it’s going to be a good one. can’t wait.  I’ve been going hard over the last few years trying to regain my throne. Many people laughed, but we’ll see who is the last to laugh by the time October 26 arrives.” 

Holloway, #11 in the pound-for-pound rankings, was dethroned in December 2019 when he lost a unanimous decision to Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 245. He repeated defeats against ‘The Great’ in 2020 and 2022 in subsequent rematches. Topuria, on the other hand, consolidated himself with a brutal knockout in the second round over Volkanovski himself. So it surely would be interesting to see if Holloway manages to live up to the hype he surely is surrounding himself with. What do you think? Who will win the fight? Let us know in the comments.