Despite another dominant win for Max Holloway, UFC president Dana White was hesitant to call him the greatest Hawaiian fighter of all time over BJ Penn.
Holloway made it three featherweight title defenses when he outpointed Frankie Edgar in the main event of UFC 240 this past weekend. While it wasn’t as dominant as his wins over Jose Aldo and Brian Ortega, Holloway was never really in trouble during the course of the 25 minutes. Plus, he now gets to add a future UFC Hall of Famer in Edgar to his resume. Many already regard “Blessed” as not only the greatest Hawaiian fighter of all time, but also the greatest featherweight of all time and why not? At the age of 27, he already holds 17 UFC wins and is currently on a 13-fight winning streak at featherweight, with two of them being impressive TKO wins over Aldo.
But does White agree with the claim that he’s the greatest Hawaiian fighter of all time? He still seems to believe Penn, who was just the second two-division champion in the UFC, holds that title for now, despite his ongoing losing streak.”It’s tough,” White said at the UFC 240 post-fight press conference. “You know, BJ Penn was such a huge talent. I think BJ was so talented, he never took it as serious as he could have and should have.”But if you look at how small that island is, and the talent that comes off that island, it’s pretty incredible. To have two of the greatest fighters ever out of Hawaii is pretty impressive.”