Former featherweight champion Max Holloway is doubtful that his expected title fight against Topuria will be booked for UFC 307 in Utah.
Three months after securing the silver-plated BMF title in the most dramatic of fashion, former featherweight champion and future Hall of Famer Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway is still awaiting a contract to be sent his way for the highly anticipated clash with Spanish-Georgian sensation, Ilia Topuria.
Dana White announces main event for UFC 306 at The Sphere
Over the weekend, UFC CEO Dana White finally confirmed the main card for UFC 306, which is scheduled for September 14 at The Sphere in Las Vegas for the Mexican Independence Day celebrations.
In the main event, Sean O’Malley defends his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili, with Alexa Grasso also set to defend her flyweight title versus Valentina Shevchenko in the co-main event, following their coaching on season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter.
Yet prior to the announcement, there had been rumors that this ‘once in a lifetime’ event would instead be headlined by the featherweight title fight between Holloway and Topuria.
Whilst that bout has sadly not been added to the September PPV, ‘Blessed’ has now offered fans an update as to when and where that bout might, or rather might not, be taking place.
Max Holloway offers update on return fight amid UFC 307 rumors
Away from the octagon, Max Holloway spends much of his free time playing video games on the livestreaming platform Kick; and if you haven’t caught any of his streams before, ‘Blessed’ often drops little nuggets of information about his upcoming fights as he plays.
This week, as the former featherweight champion enjoyed a few hours of Apex Legends, Holloway would address the surge of rumors surrounding the expected title fight versus Ilia Topuria, starting with speculation that they’d headline The Sphere card.
“This is how I feel about not being on the Sphere card… S*** sucks bro, feel damaged bro… Should’ve been us brother… It’s Mexican Independence Day – You guys cannot have a Spaniard, who Mexicans got their independence back from, to headline the card on Mexican Independence Day.”
Aside from UFC 306 at The Sphere, there had also been rumors that the featherweight title fight could be the main event of the UFC 307 card in Salt Lake City, Utah – scheduled for October 5.
Yet just a few days later, Holloway admitted on a separate livestream that he remains doubtful that he’ll face the Spanish-Georgian superstar at UFC 307 either, although he did thankfully confirm that the ‘Blessed Express’ will be pulling out of the station before the end of the year.
“I don’t think we fight in Utah… I’m going to fight one more time this year for sure… [But] I don’t think it’s going to be Utah… I don’t think it’ll be Utah bro, especially after the last fight I had, I think it’ll be on a different card.
“I mean I might be wrong, but everyone was giving me s*** when everyone was saying I was supposed to be fighting at The Sphere – so many people thought I’d be fighting in The Sphere, that was so funny… Hopefully, we get a fight booked in the next month or next couple of weeks.”
Ironically, Ilia Topuria had only just catapulted himself back into the headlines when he took to social media to suggest that the promotion had been pressuring Holloway into accepting said title fight.
“It seems that the UFC has forced him to say yes,” Topuria claimed online, adding in his typical self-confident fashion: “El Matador is back. Congratulations to all UFC fans.”
Unsurprisingly, Dana White wasn’t exactly in agreement that his BMF title holder could ever be ‘forced’ into a fight, let alone for a world championship title.
“I don’t think you ever have to force Max Holloway to fight,” White laughed at the UFC 304 post-fight press conference in Manchester.
Jokes aside, Bloody Elbow also extends our best wishes to the UFC featherweight champion and his partner Giorgina on the birth of their first child, who was welcomed into the world over the weekend.
‘El Matador’ shared a picture of the now-three Topuria team on Instagram with the caption: “No words can describe this moment, Thank you God for this far.”
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UFC 306 is scheduled to go down September 14 at The Sphere in Las Vegas, followed by UFC 307 in Utah on October 5, and UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi on October 26 – dates/locations for the final November-December PPV events have not yet been announced.