Max Holloway isn’t buying into the Greatest of All Time narrative surrounding UFC 276.

This Saturday, Holloway faces Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight title in a trilogy bout that has some fans arguing that the winner will be the greatest featherweight ever. It’s a narrative that has gained steam in recent years with MMA luminaries like Joe Rogan and Jon Anik repeatedly calling Holloway “the consensus greatest featherweight of all time,” and Volkanovski himself has said he’ll claim the title with a third win over Holloway this weekend, but as Holloway points out, this all ignores the accomplishments of former champion Jose Aldo.

“Not at all. Not at all. A lot of fans, a lot of people are saying it. Did we forget the man Jose Aldo?” Holloway said at the UFC 276 media day. “The man got eight title fights. Eight title wins, actually. I have five title wins, and until someone can beat his records as a champion with the eight title wins, then they can consider themselves the GOAT in featherweight. I got five. To be here, against Alex to get my sixth title win. That’s just the cherry on top.”

As Holloway notes, Aldo’s records atop the featherweight division are still comfortably ahead of the other would-be GOATs. Aldo won the WEC featherweight title in 2009 and defended that title twice before Zuffa finally merged the two organizations and promoted Aldo to their inaugural featherweight champion. From there he defended his title seven times, which still stands at fifth all-time for UFC title defenses (if you included his WEC defenses, he would be tied for third with Georges St-Pierre). Holloway and Volkanovski only have three successful title defenses each, a far cry from Aldo’s lofty numbers. Both men do have wins over Aldo, but in terms of raw numbers, they fall short of the title some believe they are fighting for this weekend.

But just because they aren’t fighting for the title of featherweight GOAT, does not mean Holloway’s fight against Volkanovski this weekend is any less important. Holloway and Volkanovski sit at No. 3 and 6 respectively in the MMA Fighting Pound-For-Pound Rankings, and as Holloway notes, fights like that don’t come around very often.

“Legacy. This is a legacy fight, 100 percent,” Holloway said. “You guys all know what pound-for-pound ranking he is, you guys know what pound-for-pound ranking I am. We’re on the upper end of the pound-for-pound ranks, and these don’t happen in the past decade. It did only once come to mind and that’s DC [Daniel Cormier] and [Jon] Jones, so this is a legacy fight. This is huge in every way. People are calling us the main event of this card and thats saying a lot. It’s saying a lot about this fight.”

UFC 276 takes place this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

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TOP STORIES

USADA. Israel Adesanya takes shots at Jon Jones, PED past in USADA 50-test ceremony.

Correct. Sean Strickland knows UFC 276 is ‘purely just a ploy by the UFC’ to get Alex Pereira a title shot.

Okay. Eugene Bareman: Jared Cannonier’s ability ‘to walk through a bit of fire’ puts him above Israel Adesanya’s recent challengers.

Retirement. Ronda Rousey opens up on end of MMA career and decision to retire: ‘I kept doing it for everybody else’.

Salt. Sean O’Malley: I could submit Khabib Nurmagomedov and fans would still complain.

Reason. Pedro Munhoz says it’s ‘ridiculous’ that Sean O’Malley still calls himself undefeated: ‘You lost, buddy’.

WWE. Valerie Loureda signs with WWE, done with MMA.

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VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

Embedded 3.

Khabib Nurmagomedov Hall of Fame trailer.

Stylebender Fight Week 2.

Khabib and DC back at it.

Arnold Allen breaks down UFC 276.

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LISTEN UP

No Bets Barred. Going all out for UFC 276 with bets on every single fight.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

This continues.

Do it.

Paddy Pimblett putting Dillon Danis in a box. Again.

Management.

Wild that Max and Izzy got to 50 around the same time.

Izzy and Elden Ring.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

N/A.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

As I will always mention with regard to Aldo, not only does he have nine title defenses, he also should be considered the youngest champion in history. Jon Jones won the light heavyweight title at 23 years and 243 days. Aldo won his featherweight belt at 23 years 70 days, but because at the time Zuffa was still operating two different companies, Aldo didn’t become the UFC champion until he was 24 years old.

Thanks for reading! See y’all tomorrow.

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EXIT POLL

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