Dana White would love to bring UFC to Hawaii for champ Max Holloway, but ...

LAS VEGAS – Now that Max Holloway is a UFC champion, he can be expected to keep pushing the promotion finally paying a visit to his home state.

Holloway has been pitching Hawaii as a UFC destination for years, well before he had a belt wrapped around his waist. But now that he’s the featherweight titleholder, maybe he has a little extra sway.

According to UFC President Dana White, the UFC would love to add Hawaii to its resume – but from a logistics standpoint, it’s a hard one.

“Nobody wants to fly to Hawaii and do a show more than me and my staff,” White told MMAjunkie in an exclusive sit-down this past week. “Who wouldn’t want to go there? And the media? Everybody wants to go there. It’s a tough one to pencil.

“They don’t have an arena. They have the outside bowl. I’m terrified to do anything outside with fighting. I used to spend a lot of time in Hawaii early on when we bought the company because there were a lot of good fights out there. It rains every 10 minutes. It’s raining, and then it’s beautiful out … it’s raining, then it’s beautiful out. It’s scary, man.”

Aloha Stadium, near Honolulu, hosts football games for the University of Hawaii, but is an open-roof stadium. Honolulu does, however, have the Stan Sheriff Center, an indoor arena that seats more than 10,000 people. The arena is on the University of Hawaii’s campus and is the home to the school’s basketball and volleyball teams.

So maybe … just maybe … the possibility exists, and White at least is willing to keep the door open.

“Six months ago, I said we wouldn’t do the (women’s) 125-pound division,” White said. “So I’m not saying no anymore. We’ll see what happens.”

Holloway (18-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC) is coming off a finish of Jose Aldo (27-2 MMA, 9-1 UFC) at UFC 212 to unify the featherweight titles. He had become the interim 145-pound champion with a win over Anthony Pettis this past December.

After the win over Aldo, which took place in the all-time great’s home country of Brazil, Holloway demanded a pay raise.

“The bigger the game you bring in to the table, the bigger paychecks you get,” he said at the post-event press conference. “I think Aldo is a silverback gorilla. Now I want my paycheck. I don’t want money fights. I want to get paid.”

Ultimately, Holloway told MMAjunkie Radio that he believed White would take care of him. And the UFC boss appears to be a fan.

“He’s awesome,” White said. “If you look at his run, it’s been amazing. He’s a good kid. Hawaii finally has a champ again.”

But does it have a champ that can bring the world’s biggest MMA promotion to the islands? Time will tell.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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