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Max Holloway sees himself competing in another realm of prizefighting. In his recent appearance on The MMA Hour, the former UFC featherweight champion broached the possibility of taking on a high-profile boxing match.
Max Holloway wants a “big fight” with Gervonta Davis
Max Holloway was one of the many spectators of Saturday’s boxing event headlined by Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia. And seeing how the fight went down, the proud Hawaiian was left inspired to make his own crossover to boxing.
“Let’s make a big fight with ‘Tank’ or something,” he said (quotes by MMA Mania). “Floyd Mayweather and ‘Tank,’ ‘Tank’ is following Floyd Mayweather’s recipe to the key.
So, why not he fight a MMA guy and we do a big one? I can shit talk to him. Just don’t put no hydration clause in it like how he did to my man Garcia. That would be a fun one.”
Max Holloway thinks the rehydration clause affected Ryan Garcia’s performance
Holloway’s mention of the hydration clause was to later point out how it may have affected Ryan Garcia’s performance. The 24-year-old Garcia was made to sign a clause that hindered him from gaining more than ten pounds once he’s rehydrated.
Garcia and Davis competed at a 136-pound catchweight where the latter won via seventh-round KO. And while “KingRy” refuses to blame his first career defeat on the clause he signed, Holloway believes it may have played a major role.
“Everybody talking about that shot like, ‘Oh, he would have got up, blah, blah,’” he said. “I’m like, bro, the hydration clause is real.
“He couldn’t fricken rehydrate proper and that shot, it might not look hard, but to a fricken dehydrated body that hurts a lot. That shot probably hurts a lot even if you’re not dehydrated.
“So, I can only imagine, man. And it came out the same day that he had a rat and he actually got hurt to the body and that sucks.
“At the end of the day, that was tough but I would love to do a big one. Maybe do [T-Mobile Arena] like they did the Conor stuff.”
Max Holloway at 155 pounds?
The 31-year-old Holloway ended his nine-month hiatus two weekends ago with a decisive win over number-four ranked Arnold Allen. He is now heavily considering a move to lightweight and a potential fourth fight with Alexander Volkanovski.
“It’s always good to go up a weight class with a belt, so that’s the plan,” he said. And if they thought so — that maybe we couldn’t do a fourth [fight] with Volk — I think they would’ve really pressed the issue on us and told us, ‘Look, you’ve got to go.’ But we’re here, they’re feeding me contenders. So at the end of the day, we’re going to just keep knocking them down.
“One-hundred percent [it’ll happen],” Holloway said of a move to 155 pounds. “Why not? I mean, why not? We’ll see what happens with [Volkanovski] when they’re fighting in July now with Yair.
“I think a lot of people are counting out Yair. I think it’s going to be a much more interesting fight than a lot of people think it is. We get to be a fan that night, so I’m excited.”
Holloway (24-7) actually began his pro career in 2010 as a lightweight before dropping down to featherweight two years later. In the UFC, he had a one-off bout at 155 pounds when he faced Dustin Poirier for the interim title. He lost the fight via decision but took home a $50K bonus for Fight of the Night.
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