Max Holloway Wants Big Contract Following Win Over Jose Aldo
Before his fight with Ricardo Lamas last June, Max Holloway sat down with UFC President Dana White to talk about his contract situation. At the time, he already had 14 bouts under the UFC banner, and he was in the middle of an impressive win streak. He was beating top contenders in the featherweight division. During that meeting, Holloway was told by White that he had to keep running through the fighters in front of him and when he did that then it would be time to get him on a much higher pay scale.
Well, Holloway took that advice to heart as he continued to his winning streak and recently scored a win over Jose Aldo to become the undisputed featherweight champion this past weekend in the main event of UFC 212. Now that he has done everything that White told him to do and being the champion of the featherweight division, he is holding White to his word.
“We had a meeting with Dana White before my Ricardo [Lamas] fight, and that’s what it was. We were talking to him, and he told us straight up if we fight in that contract, and we was going back and forth, and he was like ‘if you guys are talking the game you guys are talking, this contract shouldn’t be a big deal, let’s do this contract and then we’ll be sitting back here again if you guys say what you guys can do,’” Holloway told FOX Sports. “These are his words, Dana White said ‘this is big game hunting, the bigger the game you bring in, the bigger the kill, the bigger the paycheck.’ That’s what I said after the fight, I jumped on the cage, I told the media, I told everyone — hey, Dana you said this was big game hunting, I’m over here killing the biggest kill we had at 145. Here’s his head, here’s his trophy, go hang it above your fireplace some place, now pay me. Write my checks, sign my check, and it’s time to pay me.”
Holloway is not just talking but rather he is promising that he’s not tossing out demands just to make noise now that he is the featherweight champion. Rather, he is sending the UFC President a reminder of the promises that he made last year. Although White wasn’t in attendance at UFC 212 and Holloway has not had the chance to talk to the UFC boss, he plans on meeting with him soon to discuss his future. This is where Holloway will talk about his next bout, which could possibly be against former champion Frankie Edgar later this year. They will also talk about the UFC finally come to his home state of Hawaii for an event.
“I said it before, I’m going to say it again — I never dodged a fight in my life. I never picked a fight in my life. I always fight. I ain’t going nowhere,” Holloway said. “Let me sit down with my management, let me sit down with Dana, let’s have this good old meeting. Let’s get some big checks signed and then let’s get it done.”
With his win over Aldo, Holloway has his 11th victory in a row overall. He believes that White will follow through on his promises for a raise of pay and pay that a champion receives.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to sit down, we’re going to talk and I know we’re going to come to a conclusion,” Holloway said. “Dana White is a man of his word, so we’ll see what happens.”
You can listen to the interview here:
