Max Holloway Excited to Fight “Dangerous” Brian Ortega

Very few matchups have people buzzing so early as the next featherweight title fight between champion, Max Holloway and red-hot contender, Brian Ortega.

The hype began as soon as Ortega iced his short notice opponent, Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 in the very first round, making him the first and only man to ever finish ‘the Answer’.

Originally, it was supposed to be Holloway defending his title against Edgar atop the card but an injury forced him out. Now healing up, he’s excited to get back in there and fight the new number one contender, he said on the Below the Belt podcast.

“I’m excited about this fight. More people are talking about this fight than when I was matched up with Frankie. Finally I’m fighting a guy that they’ve watched grow up. This is a new era, new faces and a fresh matchup.

I’m so excited for the challenge, I am looking forward to this one. I can’t wait to do the damn thing. He is dangerous, he is dangerous everywhere. He has always proven to be dangerous as a grappler, but his striking has been coming along that last couple of fights. Like I say, when I see danger, I want to walk right into the middle of the fire and I want to test it. Whenever that date is, we are going to find out.”

The fight has yet to be officially booked but according to each fighter, the UFC is looking at potentially getting it on the big international fight week card on July 7th for UFC 226. The card will be headlined by the champion vs champion bout as heavyweight king, Stipe Miocic defends his crown against light heavyweight king, Daniel Cormier.

Of course, there is also interest in this fight taking place in Hawaii as that’s where Holloway is from. How likely that actually is is unknown.

Who are you leaning towards in this fight? Who should be the betting favorite?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/13/2018