Max Holloway made a calculated decision to move to 155 pounds and face Justn Gaethje.
At 145 pounds Holloway lost to previous champion Alex Volkanovski three times and was unlikely to get a shot against him again at 145 pounds.
At that point, Holloway moved up to 155 pounds to face the current BMF title holder Justin Gaethje.
Despite Volkanovski’s loss to Ilia Topuria, Holloway figured that Volk would get another shot at the title and he didn’t want to wait for tht to happen.
“I thought that if Topuria was to beat Volk in any way, Volk gets a direct rematch. Volk did enough work to earn himself a direct rematch.
“And then with the [Justin] Gaethje situation, who knew that Charles [Oliveira] was gonna get a bad cut, and Islam [Makhachev] couldn’t turn around and fight.
“You wait in this sport, the sport goes by you, and it goes by you quick.”
Max Holloway explains why he took the Justin Gaethje fight instead of waiting for the result of Volk vs Topuria:
“I thought that if Topuria was to beat Volk in any way, Volk gets a direct rematch. Volk did enough work to earn himself a direct rematch.
And then with the [Justin]… pic.twitter.com/7bXodlVxIU
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) March 23, 2024
Holloway will be fighting Gaethje at UFC 300 on April 13th.
