What a lovely Easter Sunday I had. I hope all of you did as well. And if you do not celebrate Easter, then I hope you had a great Sunday! Here’s a little peek into my day. I had Easter at my house, per usual. We had about 15 family members or so show up to the house where I live with my parents and two brothers. So we had a full house, which is nothing new for us. The family spent the day watching some Criminal Minds, eating hor d’oeuvres, and playing Fortnite with cousins. It was a great day.
That was before all the delicious food that my father prepared. We sat around catching up on some laughs with family over cookies, strawberry shortcake, and coffee for some. It was a perfect cap to the night. The family left and my brothers and I were sitting around and boom, we get news that ruined my night. The perfectly cooked ham is ruined. All the cookies and milk that brought me back to my childhood, ruined. We got the terrible news that Tony Ferguson is injured and out of the main event of UFC 223.
Ferguson was set to headline UFC 223 in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday night. He was booked to fight the undefeated fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC Lightweight Championship. This is the fourth time the UFC has booked this fight, and for the fourth time, one of the two fighters was pulled due to injury. What the hell. Come on, man! The fourth time! While my brothers and I got the news Sunday evening, we paced around the room in our Easter Sunday best, screaming obscenities. Although there was one glimmer of hope, the featherweight champion and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world Max Holloway is stepping in for Tony Ferguson to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Holloway is a stud. Way to step up for the UFC and the fans. Round of applause. To step up a weight class and fight an undefeated phenomenon that throws fighters around like rag dolls, that’s impressive. It’s a big challenge for the Hawaiian superstar, but that’s what great champions do. Win, lose, or draw Max Holloway is a great champion. If he wins this fight he’ll follow Conor McGregor as the only simultaneous UFC Champion, holding both the Featherweight and Lightweight titles.
Now, shifting to the fight, I see it as a hard hill to climb for Max Holloway. To take a fight on six days notice is hard no matter who you fight. Throwing one of the best fighters in the world on top of that is no easy task. I see Khabib just being too strong for Max and being able to control him on the ground enough to win the fight. The Max “fanboy” in me wants to say he’s tough enough to last all five rounds with Khabib and not get finished. But that’s a tough thing to overcome. I think Khabib will win a unanimous decision.
I’ll tell you one thing, Max is ready for a war. Tweeting a picture of a cobra (himself) and a python (Khabib) in a battle in which they both wound up dead. He’s ready to go to war, and Khabib will be there waiting for him. We have just a few days now to forget about Tony and shift to this fight, which is still a great fight and is still worth getting very excited about seeing.
Battle between King Cobra and Reticulated Python. Both dead when found #UFC223 pic.twitter.com/4wRZ47aWad
— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) April 1, 2018