Fight of the Week: Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira

“You know, I would say maybe talking to you”, laughs Holloway, who returns to action in the main event of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night card at the SaskTel Centre.

Jokes and lucky journalists aside, the focused featherweight points to old fashioned hard work in the gym and everything falling into place correctly for helping carry him to No. 5 in the division rankings heading into this weekend’s showdown with another young upstart in the 145-pound weight class, Brazilian Charles Oliveira. For the first time in Silva’s 10-fight UFC tenure, he’ll enter a fight having won back-to-back outings. The event will broadcast live on Fox Sports 1. The 23-year-old Holloway has reeled off six straight wins leading into the headlining affair, including five finishes. This is one of the closest matchups the featherweight division has to offer, but it should be the rapidly evolving Holloway who rises to the occasion Sunday night.

Check out our latest video blog where we review the main card odds for the UFC Fight Night 74 card.

Oliveira has been mostly successful throughout his UFC career. The 24-year-old said he’s corrected the issues that caused him to lose those fights and expects to thrive in his next big opportunity.

Now on to the real question: who do I think will win this five round tilt this Sunday? “When I fought against Cub, I was injured and never should have fought, but I wanted to”.

Conor McGregor is the biggest draw in the UFC and Max Holloway has done something to him that nobody else has been able to do – he went the distance with the Dubliner. So, if Holloway can get past Oliveira, and wins another fight or two, a rematch with McGregor could very well go down. “I want to be the man”, he said.

Magny is hoping to get back on track after his seven-match winning streak got snapped with a loss to Demian Maia at UFC 190.

“It’s going to be a great fight”.

But Blessed is hopeful that there would be different results should he get his shot at the interim featherweight champion after McGregor’s unification bout with Jose Aldo. However, I will have to give a slight edge to Holloway due to his scrambling ability if the Brazilian were to try to take the fight to the ground and his well-rounded, unpredictable striking.

This truly has the potential to be the Fight of the Night considering both fighters are on respective hot streaks.