Max Holloway explains why he has so much respect for Conor McGregor
Max Holloway has a ton of respect for a former foe in Conor McGregor.
The UFC’s featherweight champion fought McGregor six years ago and since then both claimed UFC gold and become stars in the promotion. Yet, for the Hawaiian, he says he respects the Irishman for what he has done for the sport and the way he handles business.
“The way he talks is business, and business is business,” Holloway said when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I understand that point of business with someone. There might be a point where you cross a line where it’s not business anymore and it gets personal but he never did that. He never crossed that line. That’s what I respect about him.
“We do jab back and forth but it’s just business. We’re not taking any real jabs at anything real crazy. We didn’t cross that line.”
Why else he has so much respect is because of the fact that when Holloway had to pull out of UFC 226 to due health reasons, McGregor was one of the first to message him. He made sure he was okay and that has gone a long way in Holloway’s book.
“[Conor] was the first one that asked me, that tweeted how everybody was saying this stuff [about the fight being cancelled] but nobody was asking about how I was when the whole [Khabib Nurmagomedov] thing happened,” Holloway said when referencing how he was pulled from a lightweight title fight on short notice.
”When the July thing happened [with Brian Ortega] and then even walking out to the Frankie Edgar fight, he showed me support. He has a heart.”
In the end, Max Holloway knows McGregor has had a troubled past but just shows he is human.
“He’s human just like all of us. He had some bad, unfortunate events happen,” Holloway said. “He was just doing the wrong stuff at the wrong time and it sucks but dude is human. That’s just it.”
