Why Max Holloway doesn't mind Conor McGregor and the 'interim title' controversy

At the time, it didn’t garner much notice. As UFC Fight Night approached in Boston on Aug. 17, 2013, Conor McGregor was entering his second UFC bout. He was perceived at the time as more of a quick-witted, humorous diversion than as the record-setting superstar he’d soon become.

And Max Holloway was a 21-year-old with some potential who held a 3-2 UFC record but who gave no indication he’d soon go off on a years-long winning streak.

But now, McGregor is arguably the best fighter in the world and unquestionably the sport’s biggest star, while Holloway is on a nine-fight winning streak and giving every indication he’ll follow McGregor’s lead to star-level status.

[Related: Why Max Holloway doesn’t hold a grudge against Conor McGregor]

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t see this [long winning streak] coming,” UFC president Dana White said of Holloway’s nine-fight winning streak, which has earned him a spot in the main event Saturday of UFC 206 in Toronto against Anthony Pettis for the interim featherweight title. “The craziest thing about it, he was what, 21, when he went the distance with Conor. You see over the last few years, Conor touches people and they’re badly hurt.

“But this kid, he’s really done something. He’s getting better every day, and he’s still only 24 [he turned 25 on Monday]. Just imagine how good he’s going to be when he is in his prime at 26, 27, 28. He has a chance to be really special.”

The featherweight belt was controversially taken from McGregor late last month, only a few weeks after he’d knocked out Eddie Alvarez in New York to win the lightweight crown.

White told Yahoo Sports that McGregor gave up the featherweight title, necessitating him to name Jose Aldo featherweight champion and pit Holloway against Pettis for the interim belt. McGregor, though, claims he did not surrender his championship and that the UFC stripped him.

[Related: If Conor McGregor can’t successfully defend multiple UFC titles, who can?]

The controversy surrounding the belt doesn’t change Holloway’s view of it. Its value won’t be lessened if he wins it because it’s called an interim belt or because he didn’t defeat the guy who’d won it in the cage to get it.

“I’m going to call it what it is,” Holloway said. “I’ll have a gold belt and I’ll be the world champion.”

The handling of the featherweight title confused a lot of people, even those who agreed with McGregor being stripped of it because he had not defended it since he won it at UFC 194 by knocking out Aldo.

White’s plan was to name Aldo the champion and have him make the first defense of what would be his second reign against Holloway. But when Aldo said he wouldn’t be ready to fight until next year, White then named Aldo the regular champion, made Holloway-Pettis for the interim belt and said the winner of Saturday’s bout would face Aldo for the regular title next year.

Holloway didn’t understand why Aldo wouldn’t fight him, but he isn’t too distressed by it.

One of the knocks against Aldo has been that he has had to pull out of a slew of fights because of injuries or other reasons, and he’s not as active as the majority of his peers.

Holloway said, “[Aldo] knew he would get knocked out again, and I guess he couldn’t face that, I don’t know,” when asked about Aldo not showing up to face him.

But he’s ready to make a statement against Pettis, a former lightweight champion who is 1-0 since moving to featherweight.

“I put myself among the best fighters in the world,” Holloway said. “To be honest with you, I think I’m the baddest thing on two feet. That’s the confidence you have to have in this game. If you don’t, you’re in the wrong sport. In real life, you need that confidence. You don’t have to be an [expletive] and go around and wave it in everyone’s face, but if you don’t believe in yourself, no one will.

“I knew I could be great and I knew that I would be among the greatest in the world. It was going to take time. But a lot of these guys like Aldo, their reputations were built outside of the UFC and then they came into the UFC. Me, I built my reputation in the UFC from the bottom up. I was a young guy who came into the UFC and started fighting the best in the world.”

A win on Saturday will put him at another level, even if it’s only an interim belt. Tactically, the bout with Pettis figures to be an amazing striking battle, but Holloway shrugs that off.

He doesn’t want to be known as just a striker.

“In this sport, you can’t just be one-dimensional and think you’re going to be around very long,” he said. “We’ve moved past that. You have to be a full mixed martial artist and be able to fight in all positions. If people think we’re going to have a great striking match, that’s great. But to me, I am going out there to win the fight in whichever way I need to in order to get that belt.

“I want to go out and prove I’m the best in the world and make this guy look like he doesn’t belong in there with me. That’s always the key. I want to make people go, ‘Oh man, he beat this guy up super easy.’ I want to get a finish, but if I don’t get a finish, I want to beat him up so bad people can’t believe how easy it was for me.”

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