VIDEO | Joe Rogan Praises ‘Straight Up Killer’ Max Holloway For Jose Aldo Rematch

After Frankie Edgar was forced to back out of his fight with Max Holloway at UFC 218, all of us were devastated. It’s a fight that we somehow haven’t seen in Holloway’s career, fresh off the heels of the Hawaiian’s dominant performance against former featherweight king Jose Aldo. That was, until we found out it would be none other than Aldo who’d replace Edgar in the fight. How did Holloway react when he found out he’d have a rematch with Aldo? It is what it is. On the premiere of Joe Rogan’s new hour-long MMA round-up show, Rogan couldn’t help but be hype as hell about.

“Max Holloway’s a savage. He’s a killer. A straight up killer and not even close to his prime. Max Holloway is long way away from his prime. He’s way better now than he was when he first got into the UFC, he’s continued to get better every fight, now he’s the champion and he just stopped Aldo. And when he they offered him the rematch because Frankie Edgar got injured — they offered [Jose] Aldo the rematch — so Aldo took it. Now it’s going to be Max Holloway versus Aldo II, which is still a huge f-cking fight. When Aldo accepted, Max Holloway wrote on his Instagram, ‘It is what it is.’ Like, ‘No big deal. Well, what are we going to do.’ Like, what? You’re about to fight the greatest featherweight of all time for the second time. And he’s like, ‘It is what it is.’ Like, that’s how badass he is. He just figured, ‘If I f-cked you up once, I’m going to f-ck you up again.'”

It is what it is pic.twitter.com/LmtqCmkWec

— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) November 12, 2017

“Like, in his mind, this is not a good fight, which is hilarious. That’s what a beast Max Holloway is, that he’s facing Jose Aldo and he’s like, ‘It is what it is. It’s not what I was looking for.’ Yeah, it is what it is. What a beast. Max Holloway is a killer. He’s a f-cking killer, that kid. He’s killer. It is what it is. You’re fighting Jose Aldo. He’s coming to get you because you knocked him out to win the belt. He has a chance at revenge and he’s like, ‘It is what it is.’ He’s an animal, man. That f-cking kid is the real deal. What’s so exciting too about him is that he’s not even close to done. He has massive potential and he could easily move up to 155 if he wanted to. Say Max Holloway wins this fight spectacularly and then starts talking a bunch of sh-t about Conor McGregor and then moves up to 155, I think Max Holloway could easily compete at 155 if he wanted to do some sort of champion versus champion bout.” — Joe Rogan on the JRE MMA Show.

Joe Rogan is right, the idea that Max Holloway is just now warming up is scary and exciting. He’s been undefeated since his last loss to Conor McGregor. If Holloway can manage a 13-second knockout scenario of his own against Aldo in the rematch, he can make a strong case to rematch McGregor is a huge champion versus champion superfight. At this point, only the biggest fights will lure the Irishman back into the Octagon anyway.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 11/17/2017.