Before he reigned supreme over the UFC's lightweight division, Conor McGregor earned his claim to fame in the promotions's 145-pound division.

"The Notorious One" has racked up wins over the likes of current featherweight champion Max Holloway, Dennis Siver, Chad Mendes, and the formerly undefeated 145-pound king Jose Aldo. At one point Aldo was undefeated for over 10 years in his mixed martial arts (MMA) career, before running into McGregor in the main event of UFC 194 in December of 2015.

The heavy-handed Irishman landed a flush counter-left hand that shut the Brazilian's lights out just 13 seconds into the fight - the fastest finish in UFC title fight history.

Shortly after that, McGregor jumped up to the 155-pound division and defeated Eddie Alvarez to become the new champion of the weight class. Aldo was later reinstated as featherweight champion after McGregor was forced to vacate the title. That reign was short-lived, however, as the young up-and-coming Hawaiian Max Holloway would defeat Aldo via knockout in their title unification bout at UFC 212 this past June.

Now after having defeated the most dominant featherweight champion of all time, Holloway is ready to continue on and defend his title against the elite the division has to offer - that would include McGregor should he decide to return to 145 pounds. "Blessed" recently joined The MMA Hour to discuss the possibility of defending his title against McGregor (who remains the last loss on his MMA record from their initial meeting back in August of 2013).

Holloway made it clear that he remains unfazed by a potential return to action at featherweight for McGregor, and would gladly take on the Irishman should he decide to venture back into the division (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“I can’t do nothing about it. He was the champ once upon a time. He was the 2015 champ. They forgot to announce the year part,” Holloway said.

“It’s a little mixup I think they’ll figure out soon enough that they was the champ, you can’t take that away from ‘em. If Demetrious Johnson, he lost his fight, and he lost his belt, and he wanted to walk out with 10 of his belts that he has, you’re going to tell him he can’t?

“That’s his belts, he earned the damn thing, (McGregor) earned his belt and that’s his belt, but they forgot the clearcut ‘2015’. That belt is just a basic ‘do not defend’ belt, that’s what you’d call it, that’s what he did so I’m not going to take away from him.”

“No, because that means he’d have to fight my ass,” Holloway said. “If you want an asswhipping at 145, come on down. Everybody can get it. I’m here, I want to fight everyone.

"Being a champion now, I get to hang out with champions inside the organization, I get to be around other champions that are not even in our sport, and the mindset is different.

"It’s hard to go out there and protect something that you earned. I worked hard, I got this belt, I earned it.

“And it’s hard to find the motivation to be like, ‘I gotta keep earning this, and keep earning it, and keep earning it.’ It’s super easy to do what Conor does.

"He earned something then he looks over the fence, he looks for something new, and it’s very easy to be motivated for something new. If somebody told me you can go do boxing, it’s going to be way easier to get out of bed like, ‘Oh yeah, I get to try something new.’”

“It already showed that he can lose to Nate and he can still hold this championship level mindset to his peers and and to his fans versus if he comes to fight me and he loses, then his fairy tale is done,” Holloway said.

"“His ‘champ champ’, this whole ‘mystic’ thing is done, that’s over with, and that’s the kind of person that I think he is. I don’t think he wants to risk that, especially against a guy like me.”

What are your thoughts on Holloway's comments regarding a potential featherweight return for Conor McGregor? Let us know in the comments section below!

Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: http://gms.to/writeforgms