Max Holloway is moving back down to featherweight to defend his 145-pound title against Frankie Edgar in July at UFC 240.
After moving up to 155 pounds in a failed attempt to capture the interim UFC lightweight title in April, Max Holloway is heading back down to 145 pounds in July. According to Brett Okamoto of ESPN, a long-awaited championship fight between Max Holloway and Frankie Edgar has been agreed to for UFC 240 in Edmonton. This is the third time this fight has been scheduled, as the pair had been previously linked in 2017/18.
Max Holloway, despite losing to Dustin Poirer in April, hasn’t lost at featherweight since August of 2013, where he lost to Conor McGregor. Since that loss to McGregor he has won 13 fights in a row at 145 pounds, and along the way has defeated some of the best at featherweight. Some of the names he has defeated include Jose Aldo, Anthony Pettis, Jeremy Stephens, Brian Ortega, and Cub Swanson.
Frankie Edgar, on the other hand, has only fought once since his defeat to Brian Ortega at in March of last year. That win being a victory over Cub Swanson in April of 2018. However, prior to that loss to Ortega, he had won two fights in a row, and was the rightful contender to Holloway’s championship. He would put that contender status on the line in a fight against Ortega which he lost via first-round knockout.
This fight may come as a shock to many, given Alexander Volkanovski’s dominant win over Jose Aldo this past weekend. Many thought going in that if Volkanovski could defeat Aldo in Rio that he would get the next title shot, however, it appears that the shot is going to the former UFC lightweight champion in Frankie Edgar.
UFC 240 is scheduled for July 27 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, at the Rogers Place. This fight is the only one linked to the card thus far.
