Will Max Holloway usher in a new era for the featherweight division?
Since its inception in November 2010, the UFC's featherweight division has only known two undisputed champions: Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor.
Max Holloway is set to join that duo Saturday.
"Blessed" faces Aldo on Saturday at UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro for the opportunity to unify his interim title with Aldo's own belt. With all due respect to McGregor, who became the undisputed champion after knocking out Aldo 17 months ago, his lack of a single title defense and current pursuit of a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather leaves the door open for either Holloway or Aldo to claim they're the true king at 145 pounds.
Holloway stands to gain the most with a title win, which would be the ultimate validation of a four-year run that has been almost as impressive as McGregor's.
Since losing a unanimous decision to "The Notorious" on Aug. 17, 2013, Holloway has won 10 straight bouts (during that same time frame, Aldo has only fought four times) with his past five all coming against top-10 contenders:
Anthony Pettis. Ricardo Lamas. Jeremy Stephens. Charles Oliveira. Cub Swanson.
Each man stood before the Hawaiian warrior, and each fell in kind. Holloway was 20 years old when he first stepped into the Octagon, and there's a sense that he's just starting to hit his prime at 25, which is a scary thought for any future contenders.
(Photo courtesy: Action Images)
What separates Holloway from Aldo and McGregor is the feeling that he truly means it when he says he'll fight anyone - and, more importantly, that he'll be healthy enough to do so. In 16 UFC bookings, Holloway has never pulled out with an injury.
That stands in contrast to the 30-year-old Aldo, whose injuries have shaded his Tapology page with more gray than an E.L. James novel, and McGregor, who exercised his right to pick his spots and call his shots once his fame exploded. Barring a dramatic change in health or personality, Holloway should be free of such baggage.
Holloway would also be the first American to hold the UFC featherweight championship. Urijah "The California Kid" Faber held the World Extreme Cagefighting strap before the UFC integrated the 145-lb weight class, but that was eight years ago, and Holloway bringing the lineal title back to the United States with those three magical letters on it would dwarf Faber's achievement.
None of this is to say that Holloway will become a bigger mainstream star than McGregor, or that beating Aldo means he immediately claims Aldo's spot in the historical rankings. What a Holloway win would do is give the division a young, charismatic face, while also refreshing the championship chances of previous title contenders like Frankie Edgar and Chan Sung Jung, among other challengers.
Whether Aldo is ready to pass the torch to the next generation or not, Holloway may soon rip it from his hands.