John Kavanagh, the head coach of UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor, believes Max Holloway will be victorious at UFC 212.
Holloway is currently the interim featherweight champion in the UFC. On Saturday, he will fight UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo.
Kavanagh recently spoke to ESPN and discussed the upcoming featherweight title fight.
I’ve been saying this since Conor fought Holloway [in 2013], that I saw him as the No. 1 featherweight. And how he has developed since then has only strengthened that in my head.
I think he will have a unanimous decision over Aldo. Aldo came up through a time when fighters were a lot more one-dimensional than they are now. Aldo’s style is almost perfect against smaller guys who are grappling-based. I don’t believe there is a smaller guy than Aldo in the world, who is grappling based, who could beat him. I’ve actually learned a hell of a lot from watching his fights and he’s pretty much perfect against that kind of opponent.
Where he tends to suffer badly, is against guys who can strike. I would say an early example of that would be the very undersized Mark Hominick [in 2011] and then of course, fast forward on to him against Conor. Now, here he is again, fighting a rangy, striking-based guy who won’t panic because of a few leg kicks. For that reason, it’s going to be fairly — comfortable is a stretch — but it will be fairly unanimous for Holloway. I don’t think there will be any doubt left in how it goes.
McGregor has featherweight wins over both Holloway and Aldo. In 2013, McGregor won a decision against Holloway. In 2015, McGregor knocked out Aldo to become UFC champion.
UFC 212 takes place June 3 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
