Max Holloway was 17 years old the night Jose Aldo captured the WEC featherweight title with six-and-a-half minutes of utter fury over Mike Brown. Holloway was still in high school at that point, a neophyte who hadn’t even yet begun his amateur career, and already Aldo was the greatest. And so it went.
The same month Holloway scored his second pro victory, Aldo was crowned as the UFC’s first-ever featherweight champion. Three weeks before Holloway ever made his UFC debut, Aldo demolished Chad Mendes with a knee from hell to effortlessly defend his place atop the 145-pound throne.