By Damon Martin

When Max Holloway's manager called the featherweight champ with the UFC's offer to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov in just six days at UFC 223, he already knew the answer before the Hawaiian star picked up the phone.

"His exact words to me were: 'Let's f*cking do it. This is how legends are made," Holloway's manager, Brian Butler-Au of SuckerPunch Entertainment, told FloCombat on Monday.

That might sound crazy, considering what Holloway would be risking by facing someone like Nurmagomedov on a full training camp, let alone on six days' notice at the Barclays Center in New York this Saturday.

Not only would Holloway be stepping into the cage with one of the most ferocious fighters on the planet, but he'd also have to make weight in less than a week after dealing with an ankle injury that just kept him off the UFC 222 card in March.

Once the initial excitement dulled a bit, Butler-Au knew his main concern had to be Holloway's health, as he would be cutting a significant amount of weight to get down to the lightweight limit for a title fight against Nurmagomedov.

When Holloway's manager initially got the call about the fight, he told them they'd be interested in facing Nurmagomedov at welterweight but ultimately the promotion was only interested in making the main event a five-round title bout.

"I got a couple of text messages back and forth with UFC brass that came across and we actually said we would do it at welterweight," Butler-Au said. "The UFC said that they wanted to make it a title fight so there was really no other option to do other than if we could make the title fight. 

"So the first thing, we checked not only if Max could make the weight but if he could make the weight safely. I know he can make the weight, but I don't want him to do anything that could affect his health long term, so we called George Lockhart, who we work with very closely with all of our athletes, and he crunched the numbers, took about an hour or hour and a half to see if he could do it in a manner that would be safe and healthy for Max." 

Once Lockhart gave the green light, it was all systems go.

"He said the numbers actually worked out," Butler-Au said. "He said it's going to take some work and if it was anybody else he would say no, but he knows Max has the mentality to do it. It just depended on how bad he wanted it and for Max, there was never a question. He was ready to go the second it was brought up."

Kings meeting pic.twitter.com/YOCskzxRmF

— Max Holloway (@BlessedMMA) April 2, 2018

As far as the ankle injury goes, Butler-Au says that Holloway was actually on his way to being cleared early before this fight was ever offered.

Holloway had been posting photos and videos over the past couple of weeks as he got back into the gym after the setback with the ankle injury that knocked him out of UFC 222 in early March.

"It's good," Butler-Au said about Holloway's ankle. "It was just a matter of getting cleared, but the treatment on it was very successful. Probably as successful as a treatment could be. Max is a bit of a freak when it comes to healing and stuff like that. It healed up, he surpassed all the doctor's expectations, and the doctor told him start training on it and pushing on it... and that's exactly what Max has been doing. It's not like he's been off of his feet this entire time. He's been training and pushing it, and it's been holding up 100 percent.

"We were probably in the process of getting cleared any day now. I think it was actually scheduled to get cleared this week. When this opportunity came up, we just made sure it was OK and it was."

For all the talk about Holloway accepting the challenge and being able to make weight, the biggest concern of all may be how the featherweight champion will fare in the fight against Nurmagomedov on Saturday night. 

According to Holloway's manager, he didn't take this opportunity just to get a pat on the back and a paycheck at the end of the night.

Holloway believes with absolute certainty that he will not only step into the cage with Nurmagomedov and have a competitive fight, but he will also walk out as a two-division UFC champion.

"I've learned over the years to never doubt Max when he is confident," Butler-Au stated. "Early on in his career, he would say things and he was so green and so young but he would say things and it would play out exactly the way he said it would play out. When he told me the game plan on Cub Swanson, he executed it to choreographed perfection. He did the same thing with every opponent after that. He's given me the game plan prior and then executed it exactly. Anthony Pettis, Jose Aldo, all of them.

"He's been talking about this fight for a while and yes, I'm aware [of the game plan]. He's been talking about this fight before it was even a fight. We'll see. I don't doubt Max ever. He's special."