Ultimate Fighting Championship

Max Holloway explains his side of the story regarding Jose Aldo

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 4:12 p.m. ET

Fansided, Nicole Bosco/Fansided

After being called out by Jose Aldo for not fighting him in Brooklyn, NY at UFC 208, Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway responds with his side of the story.

A featherweight title fight was in the works between the champion Jose Aldo and the interim champion Max Holloway for UFC 208 in New York. That fight has since been stalled and each party is pointing the finger to the other side.

In a recent interview with MMAFighting.com, Jose Aldo spoke about the fact that Holloway is the reason the fight has not been made official as of yet. Aldo stated that the fight would not be happening on February 11 in New York as originally planned.

Aldo cited that the fight had been pushed back because of a scheduling conflict on Holloway’s end. Holloway spoke back on this topic today via an interview with Fox Sports News. In this interview Holloway says:

“I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about, telling me I knew before the fight — I didn’t know (expletive) before the fight. When they told me in the cage after I won that they wanted the fight Feb. 11, I thought it was 10 weeks away so I’d take two weeks off and then have an eight week camp to get ready for him. Then after everything, my adrenaline was on high and was going crazy, they got me hyped and I said what I said and then I figured out it was eight weeks so I was like holy (expletive) that’s fast but I said that’s OK we can do this”

The next morning, following his fight with Pettis, Holloway was dealing with an ankle injury that would keep him from training for several weeks. Holloway said that he told the UFC about this injury and assumed that fight would be postponed. Aldo has had to pull out of fights on several occasions due to injury himself and Holloway spoke about this also.

“This guy is the last guy who should be talking about injuries. This mother (expletive) is the last guy that should be talking about injuries and being able to fight, he wants to talk about he never turned down an opponent in his life and he don’t pick his opponents. I can clearly — he said this, not me — he got offered to fight me. He got offered to fight me at (UFC) 205 and 206 and he would not fight me. He said he would rather fight Anthony Pettis and then he didn’t take that fight either. He’s saying ‘I don’t turn down fights’ — go ask Sean Shelby if Max Holloway ever turned down a fight. I never turned down a fight in my life.” He went on to say “That’s the thing pisses me off. This guy’s trying to run my name through the mud. I never turned down a fight. I have more wins on this 10 win streak than he has wins in the UFC. This guy should calm down.”

Holloway says that he has the “golden ticket” to fight Aldo, referring to the interim belt. He stated that he would like that fight to happen in April or May, following a complete training camp.