Max Holloway stands atop the UFC Featherweight division after defeating one of the all time greats, José Aldo in Brazil on June 3. As part of a press tour to promote UFC’s first event in Mainland China on November 25, the champ sat down to discuss the growth of the sport, his experience in China, the factors behind his three-year undefeated streak and what’s next on his radar.
How has China treated you so far?
I’ve been loving China, China’s been good to me. The fans have been great and I think the UFC fighters who are going to come up and fight in Shanghai are gonna be in for a treat, the fans here are hungry for it.
If there was a pay-per-view in Shanghai in the future would you be open to fighting here?
I would rather enjoy it like I’m enjoying it now – enjoy the city, enjoy the people, not cutting weight, not being angry and all that fun stuff. There’s a bunch of stuff I want to do that we’re probably not going to be able to do so we’ll see what happens. I love to fight around the world. I just went to Rio, fought one of their hometown heroes there and I know there’s a Chinese 145 pounder so say he works his way up, you never know what could happen.
When you fought Jose Aldo in Rio de Janeiro and the fans were booing and going crazy seeing how it went down, were you nervous at all?
Not at all. The people booed and cheered against me and after the fight they were quiet but they respect fighting. They’re fighting fans and they understand that this is a sport and they actually congratulated me walking out, shaking my hand. A bunch of them wrote to me on social media to say thank you for the way you carried yourself after the fight, and some of them even wanted to buy me a drink after.
The Featherweight division is an interesting one – Aldo was the champion for so long, then Conor McGregor comes and beats him and doesn’t defend it. Aldo is now in Brazil fighting in Jiu Jitsu and Conor is fighting Floyd Mayweather in boxing, so how do you see the Featherweight division landscape currently?
Well, we’ll see. Everybody keeps forgetting I’m only 25 but there’s a bunch of other younger guys coming up in our division. There’s always Frankie (Edgar) there, Cub (Swanson) is making a statement or whatever. We had a couple of guys fighting on this past UFC 214 card so we’ll see what happens. I have to focus on the task at hand – see who’s next and get him. I’m not really worried about what’s under, I’m looking ahead. These guys gotta catch me now so that’s the plan.
Your loss against Conor was competitive, and not a knockout. Would you look for a rematch with him in the future?
Yeah for sure. Like I said, I got three learning experiences on my record and all three guys can get it, not only him. There’s two other guys and I want to get them back. When it comes to Conor I have nothing but love for his coaches, especially his head coach John Kavanagh who has nothing but nice stuff to say about me too. He knows I’m the best guy here in the division. We’ll see what happens, I think it’s an intriguing match and I think it’s gonna happen. People think he’s not going to come back but he’s a competitor, I think he'll come back. I’m not going to lose any sleep if it doesn’t, but I think the fight will happen. He’s young, I’m young. I’m getting bigger, he’s getting bigger and our paths are gonna cross.
Tickets for the 2017 UFC Fight Night Shanghai are now available on Time Out Tickets.