The Night Max Holloway Found Waldo…

As lame as the whole “Where’s (W)Aldo” schtick was that Max Holloway threw out last year to get a fight booked with Jose Aldo to determine the best featherweight in the UFC, or at least the best featherweight in the UFC while Conor McGregor is at the store (Papa Dana promises he’ll come home any day now…), it seemed a quite apropos statement to make after UFC 212 went down, especially seeing how Max was not only successfully able to find Aldo but separate him from the W…

Shut up. I thought that was clever. Took me all of 20 seconds to think up, which coincidentally is the most thought I have ever put into one of these columns, but that’s besides the point…

Overall, UFC brought an event to Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night that had some interesting, albeit mostly predictable moments.

Former World Series of Fighting champion Marlon Moraes had a good outing in his UFC debut but was unable to overcome the fact that Raphael Assuncao doesn’t lose split decisions. Seriously. Death, taxes, and Assuncao by split decision.

Erick Silva did what he does best (get punched in the face), while Vitor Belfort proved that Father Time sure likes to take his time by earning a plodding yet convincing unanimous decision over Nate Marquardt. And he says he wants to keep fighting. How adorable.

As For Claudia Gadelha’s impressive first round submission over Karolina Kowalkiewicz, at least she didn’t punch the Pole and her Manic Pixie Dream Girl charm too many times. UFC needs Karolina around. I mean, was there any other reason people watched UFC Embedded last week other than to watch her and her training partner run around at the beach? Yeah, didn’t think so.

Well, unless you like watching lanky Hawaiians race go karts and eat cupcakes. If that’s the case, then life must be pretty good for you after Max Holloway was finally able to validate all the hard work he’s put in the last few years by claiming sole ownership of the UFC Featherweight Championship.

It was noticeable almost from the start of the young champ’s UFC career that there was something special about him. Yeah, his UFC debut wasn’t the greatest, losing to Dustin Poirier in under a round, but it was a short notice fight against a top ranked fighter (at the time). It was also his first fight at featherweight. He was also 20.

He stuck around the UFC after the loss, winning a few fights, including a split decision against Leonard Garcia, which was the first time I really starting taking notice because anyone who’s been following the sport for at least 5 years knows how hard taking a split decision from Leonard was.

After the Garcia fight, Max lost two straight fights to Dennis Bermudez and future champion/Master of the Universe Conor McGregor, both of which Max stayed competitive in and never stopped fighting.

Conor has won all but one of his UFC fights and, in all his wins, he’s only failed to finish two opponents. One is Nate Diaz. The other is Max Holloway. That says something.

(And I know Conor injured himself during the Holloway fight, but shut up. Don’t ruin the story.)

After that came the win streak. Max decided he didn’t want to lose anymore, so he didn’t and he got better with each victory, showing us more and more along the way.

Wins over Cole Miller and Akira Corassani showed his consistency and ability to execute according to plan.

Wins over Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira, and Jeremy Stephens showed he was deserving of contendership.

His win over Ricardo Lamas showed he was ready to fight for the belt.

His beatdown of Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 last December for the Interim Featherweight Championship (that is, the belt that was created after Conor McGregor was stripped of his title after not defending it for a year and the current Interim Champion, Aldo, being promoted to full champion but UFC still needing a main event for the Toronto show and not feeling like the cursed card would sell without a title fight, resulting in them inventing one for no reason, which was every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, especially after Pettis missed weight and wouldn’t have even been eligible to become Interim Champion if he had won) showed he was ready to prove he was the best in the division.

And, on Saturday night, he finally got the chance to show just that, staging a comeback and scoring an upset to do it.

To be fair to Max, he was down after the first two rounds but he was by no means out of it. He was, however, allowing Aldo to dictate the pace and play his game of working from the outside, scoring points with punches and the occasional jumping knee. If Holloway was going to win, he’d have to turn up the pressure and show Aldo he wasn’t afraid to get in close and get hit.

And that’s what he did, coming out more aggressive in Round Three, knocking Aldo down with a simple left-right combination. Max then followed Aldo down, landing punches while trying to advance to dominant positions. He eventually secured mount on the long-time champion and rained down punches, not giving Aldo a moment to fight back, forcing the referee to stop the fight.

This was a very impressive win, in many ways moreso than when Conor knocked Aldo out at UFC 194. That fight obviously has the shock factor going for it but it was also a fight where Aldo was so pissed off he threw all strategy out the window and ended up eating the first clean punch that landed for dinner.

Holloway’s win saw him face the Aldo we’re all used to: the calm, calculating assassin who learns his opponent and then tears them apart piece by piece, just like he did to Frankie Edgar at UFC 200. The fact that Holloway stared down that Aldo and not only survived but thrived shows how good his skills and determination are. He wanted to be the best and refused to allow anybody to stop him from becoming the best.

This is all, of course, my best effort to tell the story while ignoring the fact that Conor is still around, but we all know he’s not coming back to reclaim the featherweight belt. As perfect as it’d be to see Max and Conor rematch, especially with everything that’s happened in the 4 years since they first clashed, we all know it’s not happening. Not unless Max can guarantee a $100 million purse. Or unless he’s willing to share some of his victory cupcakes.

It’s hard to say what the path ahead is for Aldo. This loss probably doesn’t sting as bad as the Conor loss but it still must be rough, especially after all the interviews he did where he still tried to proclaim himself the best featherweight ever (despite the fact he got starched by an Irishman). It wouldn’t surprise me if UFC looks to book a rematch just because they can make a much better justification for giving Aldo one this time around.

I could definitely see an Aldo rematch being Holloway’s next fight. It’s probably going to be either that or Frankie Edgar, who has the advantage since he’s the fresh match up. It’s definitely going to be interesting to see who UFC tries to match Max up with considering he’s already faced and defeated a lot of the ranked featherweights. If it’s not going to be Frankie, it could Chan Sung Jung, although he could probably use another win or two to finish reestablishing himself before he gets a title shot.

Either way, at least we know the path is clear now. UFC has an undisputed featherweight champion again, and life is good.

Still, though, could you imagine if it had been Conor on Saturday night? I bet he would have beat both Holloway and Aldo at the same time with one hand tied behind his back. And blindfolded. And lit on fire. He’s amazing.

WHERE’S MY MONEY MAYWEATHER FIGHT!!!! DAMMIT DANA!!!! I THOUGHT YOU GAVE THE FANS WHAT THEY WANTED!!!! GIVE US WHAT WE WANT!!!!

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.