{"id":776583,"date":"2026-07-03T14:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/776583\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:03:11","slug":"max-holloway-responds-to-justin-gaethjes-comments-about-potential-rematch-after-beating-ilia-topuria-at-ufc-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/776583\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Holloway responds to Justin Gaethje\u2019s comments about potential rematch after beating Ilia Topuria at UFC White House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Holloway has business to handle at UFC 329 when he faces Conor McGregor in the main event, but he\u2019s not oblivious about what could come next with an emphatic win.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to ignore that one of Holloway\u2019s biggest and most impactful wins came back at UFC 300 when he delivered arguably the greatest finish in MMA history. With one second left on the clock, Holloway pointed to the canvas and slugged it out with Justin Gaethje before delivering a brutal knockout shot. Despite that loss, Gaethje battled his way back to becoming interim lightweight champion and then put on an all-time great performance to dethrone Ilia Topuria at the UFC White House card to claim the undisputed title.<\/p>\n

Given their history, Holloway beating McGregor could set up a potential rematch, although Gaethje didn\u2019t sound as interested when addressing the possibility after his recent win.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax definitely knocked me out,\u201d Gaethje told Jim Rome<\/a>. \u201cBut I feel like I got that win back with the Ilia Topuria fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Holloway does have a past loss to Topuria at featherweight, he\u2019s still not sure exactly how Gaethje\u2019s MMA math works out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw [Justin Gaethje] saying, too, and I had no idea about if you [get a win] somebody [else], you beat them,\u201d Holloway, appearing on behalf of Stake<\/a>, told MMA Fighting. \u201cTechnically, I beat Conor McGregor because I bust Dustin [Poirier], if that\u2019s what he\u2019s saying. At the end of the day, all jokes aside, it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as Gaethje becoming the first person to hand Topuria a loss, Holloway had nothing but praise for that gutsy performance.<\/p>\n

If anything, the former UFC featherweight champion was actually a little shocked that so many people believed Gaethje had no chance whatsoever to pull off the upset.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople counting Justin out, I was tripping out,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have Justin winning but I thought if Justin could win, he would have to do it that way. I thought he was going to have kicks more involved but he did it with his hands. He proved me wrong. He went out there and did his thing. It\u2019s always crazy to see when this one person in the sport has this unbeatable [aura] around them and people just think they\u2019re [unbeatable] and somebody comes out and [does] it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongrats to Justin. He went out there, he looked good, he stuck to his game plan. He fought really smart. He took calculated risks. It paid off. Even surviving that body shot. What a demon. Congrats to the champ.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same breath that he addressed the potential rematch against Holloway in the future, Gaethje admitted he plans on sitting front row to watch the UFC 329 main event and added he \u201cwould love to punch Conor McGregor in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holloway isn\u2019t reading too much into that, especially with plans to dispatch McGregor in their fight on July 11, but he knows a lot can change with another big win \u2014 including that rematch against Gaethje with the undisputed UFC lightweight title on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, that fight of course it\u2019s right there,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cIt\u2019s dangling right in front of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m focused on doing what I\u2019ve got to do, get my hand raised in great fashion come July 11. Whatever way the UFC wants to go, we go. UFC\u2019s crazy. Look at the fights they put on, look at what they\u2019re able to do. If you told me I was going to fight Conor McGregor after my last fight, you\u2019re crazy but we\u2019re here now. Days away. I can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Holloway has business to handle at UFC 329 when he faces Conor McGregor in the main event,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-776583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}