The champ, Max Holloway, will defend his title against rising star and undefeated fighter, Brian Ortega, for the UFC Featherweight championship of the world. Holloway has defended his title once and is on a 12 fight winning streak which is the longest active winning streak in the UFC and the longest in Featherweight history. He hasn’t lost since his encounter with MMA star, Conor Mcgregor, which was back in 2012.  He has also been on a tear since then and he fought for the Interim Featherweight title after McGregor won the belt and later left the division.

On December 10, 2016, he would fight the former Lightweight champ, Anthony Pettis, for the Interim title and won the fight by TKO. It was now set that he would face the champion at Featherweight for the title. He would have to face who most people say was the best Featherweight of all time since Jose Aldo. Aldo had not lost in 12 years but all that changed when he faced another person Holloway knew. McGregor beat Aldo for the belt and after McGregor left Aldo got the title back. The fight was set to take place in Aldo’s home in Rio, Brazil. Therefore, the Hawaiian Holloway would have to face the king in his backyard to take what was his. During fight week Holloway stated this quote, “This is what kings do, they go to other kings’ territory and take what is theirs”. On June 2, 2017, he would finally have his dreams come true when he beat Aldo in the third round by TKO. At the end of the year, he was set to face Frankie Edgar. Unfortunately, Edgar pulled out of the fight due to injury forcing him to face Aldo for a second time. He beat Aldo once again in the exact same way he did the first time.

Early this year Holloway was set to face Edgar once again but this time the champion was forced to be pulled out of the fight due to a broken leg. This is where Ortega comes in, whereas a hot prospect this would be a true test to see how good he really is. Ortega finished Edgar in the first round by KO and became the first man to finish Edgar. Now the fight was clear Holloway would have to give the young fighter his first loss or Ortega would have to break Holloway’s win streak. They were set to fight in July as the fight was attracting a lot of attention. But during fight week people noticed that Holloway did not look too well and had the doctors check him. Once again, he was pulled out of the fight. Ortega would have to wait again for his chance at the title. The UFC went go through a lot to make sure Holloway made a full recovery and did not book him a fight for a while.

Now the fight is set for December 8. Many people were worried if he would be pulled out but he has come out and said that he feels great and nothing is stopping him from getting to the fight. This is one of the biggest fights in the history of that weight division and it is yet to be said if the champion will continue his winning streak to 13 or if the prospect will stay undefeated.