Max Holloway takes a shot at the ‘elevator divas’ biding their time in UFC

The 29-year-old is frustrated by slow scheduling in the UFC featherweight ranks

Holloway is the former UFC Featherweight Champion (Getty)

Former UFC Featherweight champion Max Holloway has scathingly criticised ‘divas’ in the sport who bide their time waiting to defend their titles against opponents of their choosing.

The 29-year-old is the biggest contender in the featherweight division right now, having previously won the belt in 2017 before defending it three times until his defeat by Alexander Volkanovski in 2019, but has decided to fight again this weekend rather than waiting for another crack at the 33-year-old Australian.

Holloway faces Mexico’s Yair Rodríguez in Las Vegas in the early hours of Sunday morning, headlining the card of UFC Fight Night 197 in a fight which he has chosen to take on instead of waiting in the wings for Volkanovski in 2022.

Explaining the decision to The MMA Hour, he said: “I didn’t want to wait until the New Year. I wanted to keep on fighting. Everywhere, everyone, every time. Let’s get it. They told us we didn’t have to [take the fight]. They told us we could wait it out, but I was like, ‘I ain’t about that. We ain’t about that.’ I talked to my team, I let my team know and they were all on board. And we’re here today.”

Holloway believes he is different to plenty of the other fighters in the UFC’s ranks, because of readiness to face any opponent at any time. “The UFC, they don’t have this tournament structure, so a lot of these guys, they’re just waiting at the elevator, you know?”, he explained.

“They’re waiting at the elevator to go to the top. And I’m not an elevator waiter. There’s no line at the stairs, so that’s where you can find me — at the stairs. This is not new for us. This is not new for us at all. For me and my team, it’s very important to not be elevator divas. I want to just get out there and keep doing the damn thing.”

“Everybody else can figure out [who I’m talking about],’ Holloway added. “You guys can choose who the elevator divas are in this sport, but you know your boy will be at the stairs and we’ll be running up and down those bad boys.”

Holloway previous fought Conor McGregor on the undercard of UFC Fight Night 26 all the way back in 2013, losing on a unanimous points decision, and talked up the possibility of a second scrap with the Irishman in the future.

“We’re always on the shortlist for Conor,” he revealed. “Before we got injured [in June], we were one of the replacement fighters [to fight McGregor]. You can go call [UFC chief business officer] Hunter [Campbell] right now, go ask him who can sell, who’s going to sell numbers with Conor, and they’re going to drop my name all the time. We’ll see what happens. First things first, I’ve got to fight November 13th and we’ll go from there.”