It irritates Max Holloway to listen to Islam Makhachev discuss an absence of accessible fights.

Makhachev at one level appeared to shoot down a possible assembly with Dustin Poirier, arguing it made no sense regardless of Poirier’s current knockout win over Benoit Saint Denis. He later focused a June date with the previous interim light-weight champ regardless of his emotions concerning the matchup.

Holloway stated Makhachev isn’t considering his personal scheduling decisions.

“I noticed Islam discuss, ‘This struggle is mindless,’ and blah blah blah,” Holloway stated on the Mighty video podcast. “I’m like, brother, you need to have fought Justin [Gaethje] in February. Why did the man you knocked out flip round so quick, to struggle in February, while you have been wholesome. It is best to’ve circled [and fought in] February.

“All people knew you possibly can’t struggle in Ramadan, and that’s how come they couldn’t do the struggle [at UFC] 300 and he couldn’t get one other struggle. However he’s complaining like, “I can’t get fights.” I’m like, you’re solely preventing across the instances that you just need to struggle. It’s not you could’t get fights. You’re simply not taking the fights which are provided due to sure issues which are occurring. Should you actually wished to struggle, I assumed you’d have circled and fought in February.”

Makhachev hasn’t fought since this previous October, when he knocked out then-featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski in a rematch of their 2023 assembly. That put Gaethje, who this previous July knocked out Poirier in a rematch, in pole place for a title shot. However as an alternative, Gaethje was booked to face Holloway at UFC 300.

Holloway strikes up in weight for the second time since a 2019 bid for the interim light-weight title, which Poirier received through unanimous choice. There was a lot confusion as to why Gaethje took the Holloway bout with a possible title shot on the road, however Holloway backed his opponent.

“What’s Justin going to do, wait?” he stated.

Holloway’s opinion is prone to fall on deaf ears with the present light-weight champ, to not point out hardcore MMA followers. However in fact, if he’s in a position to upset Gaethje, he’s sure to get everybody’s consideration.

“Lots of people are giving me stuff, like, ‘You’re losing your time,’” he stated. “And I simply must remind them – I don’t know in case you ever watched the film Troy, however it’s like, ‘That’s why nobody goes to recollect your title.’”

Beneath is Holloway’s full interview with former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson on the Mighty podcast.