Max Holloway, the former UFC featherweight champion, still believes he has what it takes to be the best no matter the weight class. He has spent almost his entire professional MMA career competing in the octagon since his start with a 4-0 record against Dustin Poirier in February 2012.

The Hawaiian’s UFC debut against Poirier at 145 pounds was also his first fight in that division, having competed at lightweight before his arrival. After a long time away, his return to the lightweight division resulted in a competition against Poirier in April 2019.

Poirier attempted to claim interim gold while still holding the undisputed featherweight crown. However, it ended in a chaotic unanimous decision for Poirier, and Holloway has not fought in the weight class since. After suffering a third career loss to Alexander Volkanovski, the current 145-pound titleholder, last year, there remains a temptation for Holloway to move up.

Holloway said, “For sure, was tempting. For this next fight, no, but it’s always tempting to go there. You got killers up there, and those fights excite me. We just see what happens. It’s always great to go up a weight class when you got a belt around your waist so we’ll see what happens. Never say never. We’ll see what cards we get, and we’ll go from there.”

Volkanovski dethroned Holloway in 2019, and only recent masterclasses over Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez displayed Holloway at his best. However, they were still not enough to overcome Volkanovski in the arguably unnecessary trilogy bout.

Even though he has lost three fights against the champion, Holloway sees a viable path to a fourth fight ahead of his return against Arnold Allen at UFC Kansas City this Saturday night.

Holloway said, “If they didn’t believe that I would get a fourth fight, I think they would have probably forced my hand to go to 155 much more sooner. If he (Volkanovski) beats Yair, who’s after this? If I go out there and put a statement on Arnold, who’s after this? Put names in front of me. Yair is in front of me because he has the interim title belt, but in we just