Dana White is giving Max Holloway the ol’ “Thanks but no thanks” after Holloway offered to serve as a replacement for the UFC 257 main event.
UFC 257 takes place Saturday, January 23 from Fight Island, and the main event will be a showcase between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier. Both of the main event combatants hold a victory over Max Holloway, and Holloway would love a chance to step in and fighter either of them as legacy fights, even though the fight is scheduled only one week after Holloway’s victory over Calvin Kattar last night (transcript via BJPenn.com).
“All I gotta say is there’s a big, big fight next week — Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor. And guess what? Your boy’s staying all this week,” Holloway said in his post-fight interview. “If anything happens in this sport, somebody drops off, Dana knows my number and can hit me up. Make sure you guys tune in for the PPV next week baby, it’s gonna be huge, and we’re gonna have some prizes baby. Let’s go.”
Conor McGregor’s win over Max Holloway came in 2013 in a unanimous decision. Poirier’s victory over Holloway was much more recent, taking place in 2019 at UFC 236 in a fight that was originally intended to be against Tony Ferguson. If the Holloway who showed up last night faced either one of these men in a rematch, it would certainly make for an interesting fight.
Dana White Rejects Max Holloway’s UFC 257 Proposal
This also is not the first time Max Holloway has offered to step up on short notice as a main event replacement. In 2018, Holloway was set to replace Tony Ferguson to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov in the UFC 223 main event. Unfortunately, Holloway was unable to follow through due to weight-cutting issues. And Holloway won’t be able to follow through on his request to step up as a potential replacement at UFC 257, either, according to Dana White.
“I think he deserves to go home and take some time off,” White said at the UFC on ABC: Holloway vs. Kattar post-fight press conference. “I respect it, but no, we’re good. We’re covered.”
When White’s rejection got back to Holloway, the former featherweight champion replied that anything can happen. This is usually true, but given the fact that there are already two potential replacements fighting in the co-main event (Dan Hooker and Michael Chandler), it seems this may be an exception and that White’s rejection is pretty rock solid.
Do you think Max Holloway should be allowed to be a replacement for Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier at UFC 257?
