Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight titlist Max Holloway said he still has high respect for Conor McGregor despite his notoriety.
If you can cast your mind back in August 2013, the UFC stars tussled in a featherweight bout at the UFC Fight Night 26 preliminary card.
The fight went the distance but it was the Irishman who had his hand raised, winning by way of unanimous decision.
Since that fight six years ago, both fighters have established great careers in the UFC and has won at least a world championship each.
But McGregor still loves to taunt the Hawaiian fighter up to this day by sharing photo of the first fight and showing off his trademark trash-talking.
But for Holloway, this is just part of the business.
Nothing Personal
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, the reigning featherweight champion said there is nothing personal between him and McGregor despite the taunting they did in the past.
“The way he talks is business, and business is business,” he clarified.
“I understand that point of business with someone. There might be a point where you cross a line where it’s not business anymore and it gets personal but he never did that.”
“He never crossed that line. That’s what I respect about him.”
“We do jab back and forth but it’s just business. We’re not taking any real jabs at anything real crazy. We didn’t cross that line.”
Setting aside their rivalry, Holloway shared McGregor has been one of his supporters when he was struggling on his MMA career.
“[Conor] was the first one that asked me, that tweeted how everybody was saying this stuff [about the fight being cancelled] but nobody was asking about how I was when the whole [Khabib Nurmagomedov] thing happened.”
”When the July thing happened [with Brian Ortega] and then even walking out to the Frankie Edgar fight, he showed me support. He has a heart.”
‘He Is Human’
This year, McGregor has made headlines for the wrong reasons.
Last March, he was caught in a video stealing and smashing a fan’s mobile phone in Miami.
Months after, he punched an elderly man in the face at an Irish pub over a whiskey dispute.
“He’s human just like all of us. He had some bad, unfortunate events happen,” Holloway said.
“He was just doing the wrong stuff at the wrong time and it sucks but dude is human. That’s just it.”
McGregor is set for his Octagon on January 18, 2020 as he takes on Donald ‘Cowboy Cerrone in the main event of UFC 246.
Holloway, meanwhile, will defend his featherweight bout this month against the streaking Alexander Volkanovski in one of the three title fights to be featured at UFC 245.
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(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Max Holloway and Conor McGregor)