Max Holloway Still Feels Heartbroken over Khabib Nurmagomedov Fight That Never Happened, Targets Islam Makhachev

In his prime, Khabib Nurmagomedov had an almost mythical reputation, running through the lightweight division like it’s nothing. Plenty of UFC fighters wanted to know what all the hype was about and see if they could give the Dagestani his first loss ever. Max Holloway was no exception.

However, his fight with Khabib never really panned out, which Holloway has now revealed broke his heart.

In a recent interview with TNT Sports on YouTube, the former featherweight champion expressed his disappointment, but also revealed the silver lining,

“This one hurts…I wish we got to…We didn’t get the Khabib fight and I hate overlooking opponents or anything but they call another man Khabib 2.0, so.”

The man in question is Islam Makhachev, the current UFC lightweight champion of the world. He has a very similar fighting style to ‘The Eagle’ and has actually been trained by him as well.

Since Holloway did not get to fight Khabib, he wants to go for the next big thing, the man they are claiming has already surpassed Khabib’s legacy in the UFC.

However, right now, ‘Blessed‘ has bigger things to worry about, especially with all the tempers flaring ahead of his next fight.

Topuria instigates Holloway

Ilia Topuria is trying his best to get into Holloway’s head and get him angry and frustrated ahead of their title fight. The Spaniard was barely letting him speak during the press conference.

The media would ask ‘Blessed’ a question and while he’s answering it, Topuria would say something trivial. Eventually fed up with the interruptions, Holloway exclaimed,

“Brother we’re adults let me talk…calm down let me talk…Be an adult, let me talk, calm down…”

Topuria seemed to be trying too hard to get into the challenger’s head but it just didn’t seem to work.

But ‘El Matador’ remained charged up and was treating every response from Holloway with hostility and trying to belittle him. It will be interesting to see if this same energy is carried into the ring come Saturday night.