Jack Della Maddalena doesn’t think Max Holloway could just hang at welterweight. He would flourish.
Holloway (28-9 MMA, 24-9 UFC) made his 170-pound debut against the returning Conor McGregor (22-7 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 329 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Holloway didn’t get to show anything after McGregor blew out his knee just 69 seconds in, resulting in a TKO win for “Blessed.”
Advertisement
Holloway sought help from former UFC welterweight champion Della Maddalena (18-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC), who likes what he saw out of him during training camp.
“Man, I was thinking he was going to take over the fight from the get-go,” Della Maddalena told Full Send MMA of Holloway. “Just being able to train with someone like Max, it was incredible. I thought he was going to do well, and I think he would do well. Like, he would clean up 170 if he wanted to.”
It was a rather anticlimactic win for Holloway, but Della Maddalena knows that’s the nature of the sport.
“Just being invested in Max’s camp, I’m just stoked he got out unscathed with the win,” Della Maddalena said. “Onto bigger and better things. It’s a dangerous sport, and these things happen. I feel like Conor came out and gave it – I don’t know if it was so much energy, like he just put so much into it, but that’s the fight game. Anything can happen.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ex-UFC welterweight champ says Max Holloway ‘would clean up 170 if he wanted to’
