{"id":274335,"date":"2018-04-09T10:15:37","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T17:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=274335"},"modified":"2018-04-09T10:15:37","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T17:15:37","slug":"after-ufc-223-debacle-max-holloway-is-focused-on-defending-his-featherweight-title-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/max-holloway\/after-ufc-223-debacle-max-holloway-is-focused-on-defending-his-featherweight-title-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"After UFC 223 debacle, Max Holloway is focused on defending his featherweight title\u2014for now"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a few days, it looked as though UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway would battle Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight title in the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 223 card. Regrettably, however, Holloway was forced out of this contest by the New York State Athletic Commission<\/a>\u00a0when his weight cut was deemed to have gone awry.<\/p>\n

With this brief plan for a lightweight title shot now in the rear-view, Holloway is now keen to defend his featherweight title\u2014ideally against Brian Ortega, who was also offered a short notice bout against Nurmagomedov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Ortega was there [at UFC 223], Ortega kept talking about how\u00a0he wished it was him [that got the fight]\u2013 blah, blah, this and that,\u201d Holloway told Hawaii News Now<\/a> (transcribed my MMAJunkie<\/a>). \u201cI don\u2019t know. Things happen for a reason. So I can\u2019t wait to fight him.\u00a0If that\u2019s the next guy up, that\u2019s the next guy up.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to do the damn thing and get it done,” he continued. “If not, I heard they just announced the LA card, right? [UFC 227] in August. It would be fun, going into another king\u2019s home to dethrone a king again.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Holloway’s tentative plan is to defend his featherweight belt, he’s not giving up on another attempt at a lightweight title shot in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d love to [fight at lightweight], but the 155 division has been cursed,\u201d Holloway explained. \u201cI was trying to bless it Saturday, but it didn\u2019t go too well. But we’ll see, we’ll see what happens. I\u2019m only 26. I turn 27 at the end of the year, we’ll see what happens. But we finally got 145 rolling in the right space, so that\u2019s what I want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you be interested in seeing Max Holloway and Brian Ortega fight for featherweight gold at UFC 227 on August 4 in Los Angeles?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 4\/9\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a few days, it looked as though UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway would battle Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight title in the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 223 card. Regrettably, however, Holloway was forced out of this contest by the New York State Athletic Commission\u00a0when his weight cut was deemed to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":274336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10147],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAfter UFC 223 debacle, Max Holloway is focused on defending his featherweight title\u2014for now | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/max-holloway\/after-ufc-223-debacle-max-holloway-is-focused-on-defending-his-featherweight-title-for-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After UFC 223 debacle, Max Holloway is focused on defending his featherweight title\u2014for now | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a few days, it looked as though UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway would battle Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight title in the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 223 card. 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