UFC featherweight Max Holloway spoke to Kevin Iole from Yahoo Sports and touched on his marquee bout in Abu Dhabi. ‘Blessed’ takes on Boston’s own Calvin Kattar in the UFC’s first show back in the new calendar year of 2021. The former 145-pound champion is keen to bounce back from his decision loss to current champ Alexander Volkanovski.

Holloway and Volkanovski have been entwined in each other’s path for a meaningful period. Chiefly, both men concluded a rematch at UFC 251 and they will be looking to charter a new course. Securing a match-up against a surging contender like Kattar is the first move for Holloway to break away from Volkanovski. Not to mention, there were other featherweight contenders waiting in the wings to actualize their shot.

Max Holloway on his motivation to face Calvin Kattar

The former undisputed champion has been at the top for so long that fans wonder whether he’ll be motivated enough. He’s now gone from fighting in pay-per-view main events to headlining Fight Night cards. Moreover, this has historically proven itself to be a highly demotivating factor for some high-level fighters. However, Holloway feels differently on the matter.

“Like I told you many times before, I got five titles you know what I mean. Those titles don’t mean nothing to me. That’s just letting everyone know who that champion was or whatever. It’s just superficial, I guess you can say in a way. At the end of the day, we’re fighting five-five rounds, there’s no lesser work. I gotta still do the same amount of work as if I was doing for a title fight. It’s the same rules, it’s the same everything.”

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Additionally, Max Holloway also did a deep dive on his opponent who’s coming from a surging fight camp in the New England Cartel. Kattar has shown plenty of promise and Holloway was quick to pick up on that.

“And Calvin is a dangerous dude and we know he’s dangerous cause he will be standing across from me next Saturday and I’m excited for it. He’s from Boston, people like to talk about his boxing.”

“A lot of people like to talk about my boxing so…Calvin was saying something like I’m overlooking him like, I can’t. How can I overlook you? You made it here, I gotta respect that. At the end of the day, I can’t wait to fight him.”

The fight will be highly consequential for the title picture going forward in the division. The winner will be able to prime themselves favorably to possibly face off against Alexander Volkanovski or Brian Ortega, who is likely to fight for the former’s title.