Former champion Max Holloway took questions from the press at the official UFC Kansas City media day ahead of his main event …
I don’t know if it hasn’t been that long since we’ve seen you but it almost feels like you’ve been away for ages how’s he been and uh how’s the recovery been since the last fight and how are you feeling right now I’ve been good man I’m in a great place I feel great and um yeah I mean I mean media you only do it to promote something it wasn’t promoting nothing so I was laying low as long as I could and uh you know we’re here now where do you see yourself in this division right you’re easily one of the best in the world you lost lost to the champion where do you see yourself in this Division and what are your goals still at 145. bro I’m still here bro I’m still here I’m right here right in front of them uh people keep giving me a hard time of uh how we’re gonna do the fourth and blah blah this and that and I mean watching Izzy last week was pretty inspiring you know and this is MMA I mean especially you you know how crazy MMA can be you know with the guy that you’re riding for so at the end of the day um Anything Can Happen man anything happened I go out there I put a statement out there and uh who’s to say uh what happens yeah is the Israel thing like a real motivator right because now it’s like hey I’ll just do what he did I’ll just beat everyone I have to beat until eventually there’s no one else and you have to fight me again for sure for sure you know I mean make a statement that’s my mind we still remember just reminding people you know I mean I guess I got a little Roy Jones in me right now you almost have forgot you know I’m hearing everybody talking I’m hearing the credits hearing the media hearing uh hearing all the social media people talking and I just can’t wait to go out there and show out is kind of an interesting point right in this sport people do just sort of make a decision like oh that’s it his time’s done and we’re gone and it’s like you’re never spoken of again do you feel like since you lost Alex last time he’s like oh suddenly I’m I’m not a big deal something I don’t matter do you feel like that’s kind of the attitude people are taking yeah you know I I feel I feel I feel many ways you know about it but like I said I explained to everyone uh MMA is a rough sport bro it’s we’re not basketball we’re not baseball you know we’re not all these are football you know basketball I can I can go shoot from the line all for 12 two days layers two days later you got a game I can go off at 32 point uh 32 points you know we’re in a sport where you know we fight we are lucky enough to fight twice a year you know and there’s months in between you know I mean some people is lucky lucky enough to fight maybe two weeks you know or whatever but that that is like a dime a dozen you know so we’re in a sport where that’s what it is it takes time sometimes it takes time and you’re only as good as your last fight and that’s that’s what it is so I can’t wait to go out there and uh make this my next fight a great one yeah what do we think of Donald Allen where are his skills where do you think he’s good how do you see yourself doing I I think he’s an animal man you got to be 10-0 for a reason he’s standing across me for a reason I’ve been there I’ve been that that hungry guy 10 and all and you know hearing a lot of talks and this and that saying that I’m old and stuff I think I’m only two years older now you know people keep like calling me a vet vet I’m a vet I love being called a vet but I’m literally only two years older than this guy you know and a lot of guys keep talking about they bring up the damage point but we get to see you know they got a lot of uh he has a lot of questions and I have a lot of questions and we all get to get answers uh come April 15. yeah I actually just realized you’re younger than me which makes me feel very old he’s been around for ages um if you beat him do you think you’ll write back in title contention or do you kind of accept the fact that like hey the division is going to be doing its thing and I’m just gonna have to almost take a Robert Whittaker role of just being the top contenders until there’s nowhere else they can go we see what happens man I ain’t I you know I’m not a Matchmaker but who’s to say you know who’s to say I’m right here I’ve been here and if that’s the next one that’s the next one but first things first we got Arnold Allen he got my full Focus uh and he deserved my full Focus dangerous guy all around and I’m excited for the challenge you know there’s uh a lot of people keep telling me uh what’s your motivation for this fight and this and that and and it’s crazy to me it’s like are you insane like why would if if if being a champion wasn’t my motivation being the greatest because of my motivation why would I take this fight if I was in it to just fight or or even get money grabs I’ll take easier fights and I mean I’m fighting the guy who they’re talking about his next entitled contention who a lot of guys thought that he should have got the interim title you know so at the end of the day you know to be the best you got to be the best and the best is blessed lost one for me I lost the cheesy question they just announced Nate Diaz is boxing Jake Paul who have you got in that fight all right you gotta wrote the with the OG Nate yeah I wrote the OG Nate man I got uh I got nothing but love for Nate and I think he do’s good I I think it does well man he’s a boxer he’s a boxing bass guy in MMA so now he gets actually box and stuff and his reach and man he can hit he can crack bro his arms is long and he can crack so I’m excited for that one and uh you know I heard I heard uh a few behind the scenes stuff about Nathan and why that fight why that fight took so long to come in he’s trying to get all his boys paid too so Nate is that dude bro he he he’s that guy Max over here um Yaya Rodriguez officially has the next shot at Alexander volkanovsky uh the fight was finally made official what’d you think of his performance against Emmett and kind of what are your thoughts on this upcoming one that he has ah he did great man he did he did great I mean to go out there to uh to fight for an interim title and uh to do what he did and he made a statement so you know congrats to him and uh with the with the Bell fight a lot of people calling him out bro I have I have no idea why you know I know I went out there I did my thing but style makes fights I I think so both guys from my point of view everybody actually you’ve been in there both of them both of them is two uh very weird guys you know Alex is like super hard to get ready in his own set because he’s a certain height a certain size and you don’t really get guys built like that and then uh yeah years super crazy this guy can be touching your nose with his nose and he can kick you in the head so it’s it’s going to be a weird fight a very fun fight and one that I I look forward to as a fan it’s part of you hoping that yeah your wins like some people might see that as a quicker path for you to get another shot I mean we see what happens you know at the end of the day yeah everybody’s sailing that’s a quicker shot but that’d be crazy to not give Alex a rematch if if your ears to pull it off you know so I don’t know we see what happens you know I’d love to fight both of them I love to fight bowling I think so fighting fighting both of them is in tricky matches I think so it sells both ways uh you know may the best man win obviously you know you like Oscar said I think a lot of people consider you and Alexander volkanovski the two best featherweights in the world but when you did lose that last fight to him did you consider it all like oh maybe I’ll give lightweight another shot or is that not something that’s been in your brain at all no no no I mean language is there I mean me me and my management was talking and uh you know we actually we actually talked before this fight and I feel like if if they thought that we couldn’t make an Alex Ford it would have probably press our hand and press us hard to be like look you should go to 55 and that wasn’t the case so at the end of the day we get to see but 55 is not the case you know it’s it’s there it’s always there I know I can jump there I can jump there tomorrow if I wanted to but it’s always great growing up with a belt and last one for me what did you think of volk’s fight against Islam I think he did great man I think he did super good you know and uh I was I was that was I was actually crazy and I was hearing the media even the social media and stuff talking about that fight giving vocal chance and you know what I did this thing you know he he proved why he’s uh one of the best in the world thanks hey Max when you finally decide to go up to lightweight like is that something where you’re gonna take like six months to a year off and not gonna and bulk up or is it or like like what’s what’s your kind of mind frame with that I mean I I don’t know I could answer I couldn’t answer that question I mean I would love to fight and get busy and and 55 like I said is not that far off man I I mean I had a very competitive fight with with Poirier in the rematch and he used to top what three in the world at 55 right now so and then you know Alex did his thing against Islam again style make fights but we’re proving that like we’re we’re right there amongst the top you know so at the end of the day I don’t know bro but I am Polynesian I’m so more in a Hawaiian and on we love food so I I think gaining weight is not going to be a problem uh it was it was a longer layoff um coming into this fight what was that about was it just like recovering was it not finding a fight like what was it I was uh it was was a little bit due to a recovery some um some injuries that we could focus on and I could actually go to PT and actually do the time that it needed instead of trying to rush it through so it was just time set back you know laying Jack did nothing really was going on with anything you know so at the end of the day we took that time we took full advantage I got back in the gym I got to touch up on uh on other uh other part of our martial arts and you know and I’ll be back and I guess so it’s uh people been telling me it’s been nine months so I guess in nine months you guys get to see a newborn newborn Holloway so it’d be fun there’s no facial hair so is that part of the newborn yeah I guess so I you guys can thank my wife for this one day she told me take it off she loved it and she told me keep it off so it’s kind of irritating though like keeping shaving and stuff I Gotta Give me a buzzer you know um I did want to ask about the the third fight with Alex man um what were the emotions like after that fight it was it was such a big fight the third fight between you guys what were the emotions like after that fight oh I talked about losing socks I’m a sore loser bro it sucked uh uh but congrats to him and I mean like at the end of the day I had performances like that against guys that I’m not supposed to have performances like that against and all I hear is these critics and and and people saying like uh he only did that because he didn’t look that way that night and blah blah you know so I’m not gonna make noise shoes not do nothing he did what he did he showed out he did his spot and you know congrats to him you know on to the next one you know I was uh like I said I was sad and mad but uh we stayed there uh Sunday Sunday morning I woke up I look at my face had a cut with stitches on I was like damn this sucks but I got over it you know when it went out hang out with family hanging with friends we did some gambling wanted some gambling so that’s the plus side there’s a little fun question but what’s the best video game of all time the best video game of all time brother uh gotta be uh to me gotta be GoldenEye 007 bro grabbing that grabbing that Golden Gun and just one one shot in people 100 Thanks Max hey Max over here your last couple fights have been in Abu Dhabi in Las Vegas and now you’re in Kansas City where there’s a little bit less distractions does that help for you in a fight like this and just overall what are your impressions of being here I mean it’s cool bro I it it is what it is whatever we are I mean I would obvious pretty less distraction we stayed lockdown Las Vegas is fun that’s the ninth Island so it’s all my Hawaiians I love I love it when we’re there I love they need to put me back in Las Vegas but Midwest was you know I was I was kind of like I didn’t know what to expect I came here one time for the open scoring that was cool but it wasn’t in this part of the city like this is actually the city and uh it’s amazing man the food here is great if you guys haven’t already go eat some barbecue because it’s I mean full period like even their sushi in the midwest I’m tripping out and it’s pretty good sushi so Life’s good over here did you say you had the barbecue what barbecue did you have we went to q9 shout out to q9 shout out to q9 bro they they hooked us up with some burnt ends too so and it was it was um it was amazing it’s q39 q39 yeah just wanna make sure you get it right now that’s right q39 yeah they hit us up but hey another question I got for you just uh you know the main event of anything is pretty cool uh you know what’s it like to be in the main event again brother it’s good fun and I mean Main Events is good fun um we get to do it at T-Mobile Center big crowd 18 000. we’re going to sell this bad boy out so it’s always fun fighting in arenas like this man I can’t I mean I can’t Main Event it’s about you you got the media you got everything and it’s always good fun doing it in a main event fight thank you foreign