After winning nine fights on the bounce, Max Holloway is sick of waiting for his title shot.
But with Conor McGregor unlikely to defend his belt in his next fight that leaves “Blessed” with only one viable opponent – interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
The only problem is that if given the option, Aldo confessed he would rather fight former lightweight king Anthony Pettis for his next fight instead of Holloway. Aldo justified his preference by claiming it made more sense for him from a business perspective.
Holloway doesn’t agree, as he explained to Fox Sports.
“There’s a fucking outbreak in the UFC again. An outbreak of freaking pussy-itis.”
“He’s (Aldo) over here talking about business. You want to talk about business? The money fight in the 45 division right now of course is Conor but they keep talking him fighting Eddie Alvarez. There’s one guy left, you want to talk about the money fight, talk about me. Talk about Max Holloway.”
Max Holloway didn't react too kindly to Jose Aldo trying to deny him an overdue title shot https://t.co/l7ydSRXFa6
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 15, 2016
After witnessing so many fighters opt for the “big money” fights rather than face the toughest opponents. He understands why, but he admitted it’s not something he’d ever want to do. It’s just not in his nature to take the easy route.
“If I was Jose or I was Conor, I wouldn’t fight me either. I would not. I say this and then I think ‘oh wait, I would’ because I want the fucking hardest fights. I don’t want easy fights. I don’t want no shortcuts. So many people nowadays trying to do shortcuts. Fuck your shortcuts. I’m over here fighting the damn best guys in the motherfucking world. My last four or five guys I fought, they’re all still ranked.”
Aldo’s comments about Pettis came at a strange time because “Showtime” had only just called out Holloway following his victorious featherweight debut against Charles Oliveira. Holloway believes that if Aldo wants to test himself, he need look no further than the man with the longest win-streak in the division.
“When you look at it from a fan’s point of view and this and that, people will say because he’s (Anthony Pettis) a former champion blah-blah-blah. To be honest, that ain’t shit. When you fight Max Holloway you’re going in for a fight and that’s what you’re going to get. It’s going to be the toughest five rounds, 25 minutes of your life.”
While Holloway felt proud of being called out by the former 155 lb king, he has been burned by those pesky social media call-outs before and he is wary of that happening again.
“Anthony Pettis called me out. He called me out. A former champion called me out. He wanted to fight me and that’s saying a lot. I keep writing to these guys and I’m like, ‘Let’s fight.’ I get no replies whenever I write anybody. No one wants to reply to me, but every time someone calls me out, that shit ain’t flying.”
“I’m just fucking pissed off and fired up. Nobody wants it. Everybody acts like they want it until they’re locked in the cage with me and they find out soon enough what the hell is going on.”
Holloway admitted that Aldo’s comments have left a sour taste in his mouth. All he wants is the opportunity to slug it out there and give him a deserved title shot. Until that day comes, it looks like the Brazilian has lost his respect.
“This guy talks about fighting me before and then I don’t know what changed in that matter of time. We all know, face the music and come get yours. Come catch these hands and fucking let’s do it. It’s our time. You know damn straight. He was over here complaining about getting his title shot, he wanted to fight Conor but at the end of the day, he still got to fight Frankie for another title.”
“You lose a ton of respect for the guy. I thought this guy was a champion, he ain’t shit now. He ain’t shit.”
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