Holloway Wants Ortega Title Fight At UFC 226

After getting pulled from his last-minute Lightweight championship (UFC) fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov at last weekend’s (Sat., April 7, 2018) UFC 223 event, Max Holloway is now focused on taking care of business in his own division. During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, “Blessed” revealed his target return date.

And the opponent has already been identified.

“Dana called me on fight day and told me, ‘It’s alright, kid, we tried’ and ‘thank you for trying everything’ and ‘onto the next one’. So Brian Ortega is up, hopefully we can get on that July card,” Holloway said via MMA Fighting. “I’ve been asking. I see everyone talking about that July card. I’ve got to get back business at 145, but if UFC call again for 155 for that thing with Khabib, that would be fun.”

Indeed, while six days wasn’t enough time to properly build up a fight between Max and Khabib, fight fans were still foaming at the mouth to actually see it go down. Despite the setback, “Blessed” still plans to eventually move up to 155 pounds.

There is a reason why Max is trying to fight in July, as he hopes to land a coveted spot at UFC’s next return to Madison Square Garden, which could go down this November.

“Dana said it was the best shot, he said that I have business to handle with Ortega. He didn’t say a date, but hopefully it’s July. I want to fight in July so I can go back to New York and try this one more time,” Holloway said.

“Madison Square Garden, we’ve got to try this one more time, that’s what I want to do. Fans are talking about it, I hear you guys want this fight a lot and they were tweeting me right after I got pulled. A lot of guys were saying, ‘Let’s see that fight [Holloway vs. Ortega] back on UFC 226. Let’s do it then. I want to fight and I want to go out there to show everyone who ‘Blessed’ is.”

Whether or not Max has the 145-pound strap over his shoulder by the time that yet-to-be announced event rolls around is another thing, as “T-City” is on a quest to add to his undefeated mark (14-0, 7-0 UFC) by making Holloway’s reign at 145 pound short and sweet.

Furthermore, since this “super fight” is now out of the running to co-headline Daniel Cormier’s title fight against Heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, Holloway vs Ortega is definitely be more than capable to fill the void.