Max Holloway shows off damage from leg kicks almost a week after fight with Justin Gaethje: 'He kicks like a Mack truck'
04/19/2024 10:21 AM
Max Holloway took quite a few leg kicks from Justin Gaethje during their BMF title fight at UFC 300.
Holloway scored an incredible fifth-round knockout win over Gaethje to become the BMF champion. It was an incredible win from Holloway, but he did take some nasty leg kicks, and during the fight a welt started to show.
Following the win, Holloway was on his Kick live stream and showed off some of the damage he took from the leg kicks.
His leg was still swelled up from the kicks, showing how serious the leg kicks were, but Holloway powered through the leg kicks through the fight to get the knockout win.
Max Holloway eyes featherweight title shot
With Max Holloway becoming the BMF champion, the plan for the Hawaiian is to return to featherweight to fight Ilia Topuria for the title.
Even before Holloway won the BMF belt, he and Topuria had been trading shots at one another, and that has only increased since then.
Speaking on The MMA Hour, Max Holloway says he wants Ilia Topuria next time out and hopes it does happen.
"That was always my main goal. My main goal was always fighting Ilia," Holloway said. "This was a fun fight. Shout out to Justin Gaethje. Justin Gaethje's a legend, 'The Highlight,' he had everything to lose. He gave me the shot and this happened. But in my mind it was always, no matter what, win, lose, whatever it is, even until today, I wanted to fight Ilia.
"People always ask me, 'What are your thoughts on Ilia?' The only thing that comes to my mind is it's questionable. The dude is super questionable. Every other 145 contender that they wanted to fight [Alexander Volkanovski], they went through me. They fought me or they had to fight me. That's one guy that eluded me. I don't know how, I don't know why, but he did and he got the title shot,” Holloway added.
Currently, the fight between Holloway and Topuria has not been booked, but both men are calling for the bout to happen next.