Max Holloway: ‘I like my odds’ of defending ‘BMF’ title on UFC White House card

Max Holloway believes there’s a good chance he’s fighting at next year’s UFC White House card.

Earlier this year, UFC CEO Dana White and President Donald Trump announced that for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, the UFC will hold a special fight card on the White House lawn. Since the announcement, scores of fighters have shown interest in taking part in the event, including former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones — who ended his retirement in an effort to be on the card — and Conor McGregor. But the “BMF” champion believes he also has a pretty good shot at being part of the fight card.

“We’ll see what happens with the Conor thing, with Jon Jones coming back,” Holloway told Korean Zombie’s Youtube channel. “I think the card idea is cool, but there’s no American champion. The only American champion there is is the ‘BMF’ title, so you’re looking at the man. So am I going to be at the card? I like my odds of being on it.”

While Holloway is the only American, male UFC champion, he’s not the only American champion; both Kayla Harrison and Mackenzie Dern are American citizens, and hold the women’s bantamweight and women’s strawweight titles respectively.

Holloway holds the ceremonial “BMF” title, which he won from Dustin Poirier in June at UFC 318, and it’s unclear if that will even play a factor in the White House card booking. Dana White has suggested the event won’t be an “America vs. the world” themed affair, so perhaps Holloway won’t be on it, which he seems to have mixed feelings about.

“But I don’t know too much of really wanting to be on it,” Holloway said. “Because I heard that’s only going to have like 5,000 people on the lawn, and then across the street, they’re going to have like 80,000 people at screens watching and stuff, which is cool, but the 5,000 people, I don’t know if my family would be able to have seats there. So at the end of the day, it kind of sucks not having family members there, especially when I worked my way up so high in the UFC, I’m so used to having them really close, ringside and stuff, and them just being there.”

And the timeline also matters for Holloway. “Blessed” has not competed since UFC 318, and he doesn’t want to sit out for an entire year just to wait on the White House card.

“We’ll see what happens,” Holloway said. “But first thing’s first, just get through this injury, and hopefully I can get a fight early in the year around March, Aprul, and see if I can do a turnaround. If they wait, or if they hold me, it’s so long. I fought Poirier in June, and the card is going to be in June. That would be a long wait for me.”

But while Holloway isn’t sure when his next fight will be, he does have a pretty good idea who it will be against: Charles Oliveira.

Holloway and Oliveira first fought at featherweight in 2015, with Holloway winning a bizarre bout where Oliveira suffered an esophagus injury. Since Holloway won the BMF title, fans have theorized about a rematch between the two, and after beating Mateusz Gamrot at UFC Rio in October, “Do Bronx” called for just that; and Holloway is happy to oblige.

“We just have history,” Holloway said. “Oliveira is just like me. We’re in the top of the division, and I’m sure he wants to erase his last fight to Ilia [Topuria], with Ilia being the champ. And that’s my goal, too. I have history with the champ. … I think he just wants a fight to better his career and get a title fight, and why not me? There’s a BMF title on the line. A lot of people like to consider him one of the BMF’s in the division, and that would be fun, I think.”