Max Holloway Quotes

Winning the belt is one thing. But you're not really a champion until you defend it.

For every champion, after you win the belt, you want to defend it as many times as possible.

I've been proud to be national champion. I've really enjoyed it. I have very little opportunity to remind people that I'm British and it's a nice way of staying in touch. I'm going to defend it fiercely. I want to keep it.

You have to take the belt, and I dont give my opponents a chance to take my belt. I go out there and take away their opportunity to take my belt away from me.

I'm here at Madison Square Garden as world champion and have a world champion's mentality, the pressures on to defend my belt - this is what champions do.

Every single time I defended the belt, it was against the best guy in the world.

I carried the WBO belt for five years and defended it 15 times against 10 world champions.

The Russians have held my title for ten years and they're going to be in for it when I win the Championship. They're going to have to wait and play under my conditions.

A rematch is one of those things that will always be there when you remove a champion, and it's something you definitely need to give them - that chance for a rematch. That's the only way to do it.

Many people talk about winning two straight gold medals, but I'm not focusing on defending the title.

I'm looking forward to wrestling Tony Nese, defending my title, and cementing my legacy as the greatest cruiserweight of all time.

I am very, very proud of being United States Champion and defending it.

I always want to fight for the belt. I don't really care.

I've always done whatever is necessary to retain my Knockouts title by any means necessary.

I held the title for almost eight years the first time and then I lost it at the Garden. But, then I came back and took it again for another four years.

I don't care about being the champ champ. I want to be the only consecutive 12-time defending champion in any mixed martial arts promotion.

Once I've got that world title I'll never want to lose it. I'll fight tooth and nail to keep it.

There's guys who train hard. There's guys who believe they're real tough. But there's only a certain amount of guys who believe - like, really believe - they should be the champion. I know I have that mentality, and I know other guys who have that mentality.

I don't have a list, really. I just want to fight guys that are highly respected by the fans, and I want to fight guys who make me nervous. With high risk comes great reward. I want to be a champion that can honestly look people in the eye and say, "I've fought the best guys in the world."

The thing that gets me up in the morning is that I’m really not ready to see someone that I know I can beat holding my belt.

I think if you get the opportunity to try and become the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and you turn your back on it, then you're a bit of a fraud.

I’m just a big, hairy, American winning machine!

They say that when you're the champs, everybody will try to beat you. Well, I'm glad we're champs, so bring'em on, bring'em all on. If we die, we ain't gonna die running. It's gonna be a fight.

This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great hockey team the Soviets have. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and take it!

The mindset of a champion is that I put myself in a certain situation to win, I don't play to lose, I dont prepare to lose, I hate second place and I definitely don't like silver.