Max Holloway is a striking god. Wrestling? Not so much. The former UFC featherweight kingpin recently spilled the beans on why he avoided the mats as a teenager, and the reason is pure, unadulterated teenage vanity.
He hated the outfits. Specifically, the singlet. Holloway couldn’t stomach the thought of squeezing into skin-tight spandex in front of his high school peers. He thought it was social suicide. Decades later, the irony is dripping. He now spends his Saturdays getting half-naked in front of millions, wearing nothing but tight compression shorts. He gets paid for it, sure, but the hypocrisy isn’t lost on him.
“My buddies tried dragging me out,” Holloway told UFC reporter Megan Olivi. He refused. He wasn’t going to be caught dead in that gear. Now in his thirties, he looks back and laughs at his own stupidity. He realizes he should have just swallowed his pride, put on the damn singlet, and learned how to grapple.
That missing skillset came back to haunt him. At UFC 326, Charles Oliveira put on a grappling clinic, snatching Holloway’s BMF title in a lopsided decision. Oliveira glued him to the canvas for five grueling rounds. It was a stark, painful reminder of what happens when you let teenage fashion anxieties dictate your combat sports education. Holloway (27-9) paid the price on the mat.
