Michael Bisping: Max Holloway Has Legitimized Featherweight Again

There were many fans that believed when Jose Aldo won the UFC interim featherweight title over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 last July that he was a paper champion. The reason for that is due to him losing to Conor McGregor in just 13 seconds. Also, McGregor had never lost the 145-pound title loomed large over the division. However, for many fans, the champion of the division is now the real champion following Max Holloway unifying the featherweight titles last weekend at UFC 212 by stopping Aldo in the third round. It is truly a new era in the division.

UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping talked about this on the latest episode of his Believe You Me podcast. During the show, Bisping suggested that Holloway’s victory was the best outcome for the health of the 145-pound division.

“I think it’s fantastic that Max Holloway won and I think he had to win to put life back into the 145 [pound] division,” said Bisping (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting. “Because honestly, Jose Aldo is a great fighter, Jose Aldo had an amazing career, Jose Aldo this, Jose Aldo that, all this f**king good stuff is so positive – I was not for one second buying Jose Aldo as the featherweight champion. I’m sorry, but he got knocked the eff out in 13 seconds and then in his next fight he fights Frankie Edgar and all of the sudden he’s the champion again. So for me, I never bought into that. On the other side, we had Max Holloway on a 10-fight win streak, getting better and better with every fight. The whole interim title fight at UFC 206 against Anthony Pettis, that was a little weak sauce so to speak, but still, he beat him. Then he fights the undisputed champion which is bullshit because he’s not the undisputed champion because he just got knocked out in his fight previous.”

The UFC originally planned that the winner of Aldo vs. Edgar II at UFC 200 would fight McGregor. However, those plans fell through as McGregor spent much of 2016 embroiled in a pair of fights with Nate Diaz and then chased after and won the lightweight title at UFC 205. Once McGregor beat Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title, the UFC stripped McGregor of his featherweight belt, and Aldo was promoted to undisputed champion. This led to Holloway’s fight with Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 into an interim title fight and saw Holloway win. With Holloway beating Aldo, Bisping sees Holloway as the legitimate champion.

“Now, fortunately, Max Holloway went out there and destroyed him,” said Bisping. “Great fight, very, very entertaining fight. Well done. So now we have, I think it’s fair to say, a legitimate champion that nobody can disparage or take away from because yes, he got beat by Conor but that was three or four years ago now, and Max is a different fighter today. So 145 has a solidified, definite, undisputed featherweight champion of the world which I think is great for the division.”

Bisping is currently out of action with a knee injury and is likely to return later this year with him fighting the winner of Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker for an interim middleweight title at UFC 213 on July 8.