Max Holloway and Justin Gaethje will be locked inside the cage in the featured fight of the highly-anticipated UFC 300 for the BMF title. With the title being symbolic, many have criticized the relevance of the tile and one such person is Islam Makhachev, the pound-for-pound king.
In his appearance on a recent podcast, Holloway criticized Makhchev’s remarks and provided a stern response. With the possibility of a title fight not negligible between the two, the war of words could potentially become a rivalry.
Max Holloway fires shots at Islam Makhachev
Max Holloway was a recent guest on the “MightyCast podcast”, hosted by the arguable GOAT of MMA, Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. On the podcast, Holloway fired shots at Islam Makhachev after the latter questioned the validity of the BMF title in a recent interview.
“[Islam] you should have fought Justin in February! Why did the guy you knocked out turn around so fast to fight in February, when you were healthy”, Holloway criticized Makhachev as Alexander Volkanovski whom Makhachev knocked out at UFC 294 fought at UFC 298 against Ilia Topuria in February.
“You should’ve turned around [for] February”, Holloway added as he stated that Makhachev squandered the opportunity to fight Justin Gaethje in February. “Everybody knew you can’t fight in Ramadan. He’s complaining like ‘I can’t get fights'”, Holloway further criticized the Russian lightweight.
Holloway also stated that Makhachev is choosing and picking locations at his leisure unlike himself. For Holloway, a BMF is somebody who fights anywhere anytime irrespective of weight class and it is something that he feels Makhachev is not.
Islam Makhachev denounced Max Holloway vs Justin Gaethje UFC 300 bout
Max Holloway’s criticism of Islam Makhachev came after the comments he made about the BMF fight in his interview with Mike Bohn of MMAJunkie. For Makhachev, the booking of Holloway versus Gaethje was a surprise.
“Honestly, I don’t want to upset people, but this fight, for this useless belt, nobody gains anything from this fight”, Makhachev said as he questioned the relevance of the fight. Makhachev had earlier made the statement that the BMF belt is for fighters who could never be undisputed champions.
For Makhachev, the ideal scenario was for him to fight Justin Gaethje in June. However, the BMF fight has altered those plans. Now, he has set his sights on Dustin Poirier who recently knocked out Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299.
Nonetheless, Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan are fighting at UFC 300 for the number one contender spot. However, Oliveira recently made the statement that he would fight Conor McGregor rather than Makhachev.
Do you think Max Holloway will defeat Justin Gaethje at UFC 300? Leave your prediction below!
