#4: Max Holloway
Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
There have been moments in Max Holloway’s career where he’s looked like the best fighter I’ve ever seen.
For so long, Jose Aldo was the paragon of technical depth in MMA, but Max has successfully undone the legendary Brazilian champion on two separate occasions. When the seemingly unstoppable dynamo, Brian Ortega, stepped up to the plate, Max Holloway absolutely annihilated the blue chipper with a relentless combination of footwork, angles, rhythm, output, and a nasty mean streak. Watching Max subtly shift his feet with every jab, gliding around the stationary opponent, before blindsiding him with a four-punch combination is as beautiful as it gets in MMA.
The Rise
Holloway’s reputation was still somewhat underplayed before the first Aldo win. Despite winning nearly 30 rounds consistently on his run to the lineal title, the early career losses to McGregor and Poirier left an overplayed stain on Max’s early record. Prior to his unprecedented winning streak, Max was 3-3 in the UFC and 7-3 overall. Had the UFC cut him at this point in time, there would be some sort of argument for it.
Fortunately for everyone involved (except Aldo, apparently), they didn’t and Max has blossomed into an absolute machine. From January of 2014 to December of 2015, Holloway fought eight times, four in each year, winning every single bout. Six out of the eight wins were finishes. For a while, Max seemed like an action fighter/spoiler, who would be thrown to upcoming prospects to further their stock. This backfired, because Max refused to be cannon fodder and instead opted to beat them instead. A few years later, Mirsad Bektić is likely still thanking his lucky stars that his scheduled bout with Holloway fell through.
Never a particularly big hitter, Holloway nevertheless figured out how to put opponents away with increasing productivity. The Hawaiian was an avid body puncher from day one, which only flourished the more confident and technical he became. Watch him building his body shots from Round 2 onward against Andre Fili before folding the prospect in the final frame. Longtime strikers in the division looked befuddled against Holloway’s fundamentals and output. Cub Swanson was outclassed from the beginning of the fight, and utterly crushed by the end. If an opponent managed to make it into the third frame against Holloway, usually they were gulping air, running out of ideas, and full of anxiety.
Blessed Era
In time, elements of Holloway’s technical game became more subtle and shaded. When 23-year-old Max fought Cub Swanson, he was more of a blitzing combination striking who would enter with throwaways and feints before taking angles on the way in. The more he progressed, the better he became at taking smaller steps with his feet to position himself before angling off and around his opponent between exchanges. Short, snippy combinations turned into longer volleys of body-head punches. Rhythm and gradients in his punching made for unpredictable and punishing boxing volume that broke down nearly every fighter Holloway would face. His clinch game became enormously useful when opponents got anxious on the feet and tried to grapple with Max. One of the finest defensive clinch fighters in all of MMA, wrestlers and grapplers would find themselves shrugged off and turned away as Max’s posture and balance remained uncrackable.
There is no UFC champion that is more commanding of a fight than Max Holloway. He doesn’t mind giving the first couple frames in a fight way if it means opening up body shots and setting a pace. When his momentum starts to ramp up, opponents generally fall way behind. Alongside Tony Ferguson, Max Holloway might be the most intrinsically skilled fighter in MMA history at forcing opponents to work. And unlike Ferguson, Holloway has much greater defensive and offensive depth without putting himself in compromising positions.
Everything comes from Max’s jab. He feints and throws it away to disguise his subtle feet movements and the combinations behind it. Even the sport’s greatest defensive fighter was incredibly frigidity and tense in handling Max’s jab. Aldo never quite knew when Max was committing or when he was just throwing out feelers, which meant that Aldo drained his own gas tank just by trying to fight around the Hawaiian’s lead hand. Jab, jab, jab-hook, jab-cross-body hook. Nothing out of the ordinary, but vicious in its speed and persistence. As long as you’re locked in the cage with Max Holloway, you will be fighting his fight.
Holloway reads his opponents extremely well, and knows exactly how to play into their tendencies. A long uppercut to dissuade a short, stocky wrestler from shooting was very smart against Edgar. Max would feint at Ortega, Ortega tried some exaggerated head movement and trunk rotation. When Max combined angles with feints, he would catch Ortega hideously out of position before cracking him. Aldo may be the greatest defensive fighter MMA will ever know, but Holloway managed to needle his jab between Aldo’s coiled defensive maneuvers. When Aldo attempted to throw back with mad intentions (his go-to tactic to diffuse opponents from pushing him), Max threw back as well and didn’t give the aging athlete space to breathe.
Legacy Pending
After years of unbridled success in the cage, Dustin Poirier handed Max Holloway his first loss since 2013 in a phenomenal fight at 155. Two of the best, most potent offensive boxers in the sport clashed for 25 minutes in one of the sport’s best fights. I have already written extensively about how special this fight is, but despite falling just short of two divisional gold, Holloway fought his heart out. Even against a far more powerful puncher, Holloway’s craft and output shined through and he battled back with everything he had to get the win. It wasn’t a victory, but it might be my favorite chapter in Holloway’s studded career thus far.
It is hard to write a conclusive piece about Max Holloway as one of the four best fighters ever when he’s still in the midst of a historic career. Maybe a crushing defeat at the hands of Alexander Volkanovski is on the horizon.
What we do know is that Max Holloway, once a B-side to part of McGregor’s unprecedented rise, has eclipsed the Irishman. McGregor could be worn down or have the momentum turned against him. Max Holloway never flags.