Max Holloway is already the second greatest Featherweight in MMA history. Even if the champion loses to undefeated challenger Brian Ortega on Saturday, the 27-year-old's resume is already loaded with enough Hall of Fame-worthy feats to secure his spot right behind long-reigning former champion Jose Aldo. But in 2018, most of the stories written about the Hawaiian fan favorite have not focused on his historic 12-fight winning streak, nor on his division-record 14 wins at Featherweight, nor on his division-record eight KO/TKO wins at Featherweight. Instead, the story on Holloway this year has been his sometimes mysterious difficulty making it to the cage, while meanwhile a new challenger has emerged as the hottest thing in the 145 pound division.

In a perfect world, 2018 should have marked Holloway's ascent to mainstream stardom. After finishing Jose Aldo twice and earning a number of "Fighter of the Year" awards in 2017, Holloway was scheduled to defend his title against former Lightweight champion Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 in March. The Holloway/Edgar matchup was highly anticipated -- the bout was originally set for December 2017, but Edgar pulled out due to an orbital bone injury, so it was rebooked. The matchup between Holloway and Edgar promised a clash of vastly different MMA styles -- Holloway is a rangey kickboxer who dominates opponents with a high output on the feet; Edgar an undersized but tenacious wrestler with clean boxing and a granite chin. For Edgar, the matchup would be his opportunity to become a two-division champion without having to get past rival Jose Aldo (who previously defeated Edgar in two championship bouts); for Holloway, the matchup would have been an exciting test as to how the knockout artist performs against a veteran who has never been knocked out, and the best wrestler in the division to boot.

Unfortunately, the fight was scrapped for a second time when Holloway suffered a leg injury one month before the fight. Edgar elected to stay on the card and fight undefeated BJJ black belt Brian Ortega on short notice. Ortega was himself a rising star, holding a UFC record of 6-0-1 with all of his fights ending via finish. The one No Contest came in Ortega's UFC debut, and was originally a first-round win by rear-naked choke before being overturned due to a failed drug test.

Ortega tested positive for the weight-cutting agent Drostanolone, but the suspension and fine did not derail the UFC newcomer. Unlike many UFC fighters who have claimed innocence and pointed the finger at tainted supplements (or even tainted male enhancement pills), Ortega held himself accountable by publicly admitting his intentional usage and apologizing. Since then, Ortega has continued to present himself to fans as something of a walking contradiction. On the one hand, there is the Ortega who seems ready to be a mainstream star. Ortega has sharp blue eyes, an easy smile, and wears his hair in surfer-esque man-bun. He is soft-spoken and candid in interviews, and comes off all the more likable for being so open about his tough up-bringing, his relationship with his father, and other sensitive topics such as his disagreements with Dana White and the aforementioned drug test failure.

Dig a bit deeper and one will find that Ortega is not a totally polished teenage dream, but something much more. Ortega grew up in housing projects in the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles, and, as he tells it, lived a life of turmoil before finding success in the UFC. Ortega has recounted grim memories such as getting out of jail and seeing his sister overdosing on the street, being shot at, sleeping on the floor, and so on. Ortega says that he still has friends living that sort of lifestyle to this day. Ortega simultaneously has easygoing approachability, and a hint of something more dangerous lurking underneath.

It is ironic that many of Ortega's UFC victories have mirrored his story outside the cage, seeing him snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. After returning from suspension, Ortega won four consecutive fights, each in the third and final round. Two of those wins (against Thiago Tavares and the ascending Renato Moicano) were back-and-forth affairs that could have gone either way before Ortega finished the fight. The other two wins, over Clay Guida and Diego Brandao, came when Ortega was certainly behind on the judges' scorecards and en route to defeat. The Guida win came with just 20 seconds left in the fight.

Since then, Oretega has found victories more easily and more quickly. He won his first ever main event by dominating gatekeeper Cub Swanson. Swanson was nearly choked out at the end of the first round but was saved by the bell. Ortega finished the job with a flying guillotine choke in the second round. This takes us back full circle to UFC 222 -- when Holloway pulled out, the UFC turned to Ortega to step in and fight Frankie Edgar. On paper, Edgar was an even bigger test for Ortega than he was for Holloway. Surely, one would reason, Edgar's combination of elite wrestling and insane durability would make it difficult for Ortega to use his world class jiu jitsu to find a finish.

Instead, Ortega shocked the world by knocking Edgar out with a viscous uppercut in the very first round. The jiu jitsu fighter became the first and only man to knock Edgar out in his 13-year MMA career. In hindsight some questioned Edgar's decision to take the short notice fight when he stood the top contender, but once it was over Ortega was clearly cemented as the new number one contender to Holloway's title.

Holloway almost fought a different opponent first -- about one month after pulling out of UFC 222, Holloway was surprisingly announced as a short-notice replacement for Tony Ferguson, who injured his leg just days before his scheduled bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov for the Lightweight title. That level of self-belief and willingness to fight anyone at any time is a large part of why fans love Max Holloway, but ultimately the bout never came to fruition. The New York State Athletic Commission pulled Holloway from the fight at weigh-ins the day before the bout was scheduled to take place, on the grounds that he was in an unhealthy condition and unfit to fight after cutting so much weight over just six days.

Three months later Holloway and Ortega were booked to fight for the title at UFC 226, but for the third time this year Holloway had to pull out of the fight. This time, the reason for the cancellation was less concrete than an injured leg or a botched weight cut. Just three days before the event, Holloway pulled out of the fight for "concussion symptoms." Holloway and his team were apparently unconcerned with or unaware of Holloway's issues until a live television interview with Michael Bisping went sideways. Towards the end of the interview, Bisping asked Holloway if he was feeling alright and said that Holloway "looked sleepy." Though Holloway said that he was fine, a day later he was off the card. As noted in that same interview, there was already concern that 145 pounds was too severe a weight cut for Holloway to continue fighting in the division. Frenzied speculation abounded -- was Holloway knocked out in camp? Or worse, had his 22-fight career of tough weight cuts and brutal brawls taken a permanent toll on Holloway? Or maybe the whole thing was a bunch of overblown concern over nothing?

Ortega, meanwhile, was offered then-surging Jeremy Stephens as a late-notice opponent for an Interim title, but he declined. While Ortega was aware of the irony of becoming the number one contender as a short-notice replacement and then refusing to pay forward the opportunity to Stephens, as he saw it the situations weren't quite the same. While Edgar was a veteran legend of the sport, Ortega had not yet fully cemented his place on the metaphorical ladder; he could not risk being tossed down a peg for anything less than the real championship opportunity that he fought so hard for. Ortega's unwillingness to save the fight card won him no goodwill from UFC boss Dana White, but he held out nonetheless.

Now the two fighters are at a crossroads once again. For Holloway, the result of this Saturday's fight could determine whether he is ready to become fully realized as one of the UFC's flagship stars, or if his historic winning streak already reached its peak in 2017. Holloway has recently spoken about struggling with depression due to forces beyond his control keeping him out of competition. Even though Holloway is still riding that 12-fight streak, a win over an undefeated contender would almost feel like a comeback.

For Ortega, the opportunity to become only the ninth undefeated UFC champion in the past 10 years is obviously monumental. If Ortega continues his streak of finishing fights, he'd also become the first person to finish Holloway since Holloway's UFC and Featherweight debut in 2012. Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega is the most anticipated Featherweight title fight since Conor McGregor challenged Jose Aldo in 2015. If their combined 26 consecutive fights undefeated is any indication of what's to come, the fight should live up to the hype and then some. Neither Max Holloway nor Brian Ortega is content with being second greatest at anything, be it in the UFC rankings or fans' all-time rankings, but this Saturday only one fighter will leave as the champion.