Tell us if you’ve heard this one before: Max Holloway was just involved in what might end up being the fight of the year. Holloway and Yair Rodriguez went toe to toe at UFC’s Fight Night on Saturday, with Holloway earning the unanimous decision victory 48-47, 48-47, 49-46.
According to post fight stats, Holloway landed 230 significant strikes to Rodriguez’s 159. The mark of 389 combined significant strikes landed is good for 3rd most in a single fight in UFC history. The scary part? All of the top 4 bouts in terms of significant strikes landed involve Max Holloway. Following the 5 round war, Dana White called it “one of the best fights I’ve ever seen”.
Max has now eclipsed the 3,000 strikes landed mark for his UFC career, and in 25 UFC fights has never once been knocked down (he’s the only fighter in history to hold either distinction). His 2,848 significant strikes landed (and counting…) is also a UFC record, firmly entrenching him in the G.O.A.T. conversation in the 145lb division.
After dropping back to back fights to current featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, Holloway has now put together consecutive impressive victories over Rodriguez, and Calvin Kattar (which also won fight of the night honors). Only 29 years old, the “Blessed” one has the most wins (18), KO/TKO’s (8) and stoppages (10) in UFC Featherweight history.
Holloway has now essentially cleaned out the featherweight division, with the exception of current champion Volkanovski. Alexander “The Great” is riding a 20 fight win streak, has never lost in the UFC, and has only one blemish on his professional record (a 2013 loss to Corey Nelson at Australian FC 5). While a trilogy match is almost a certainty at this point, the real question fight fans are wondering is when that might happen.
Given the current trend of fighters looking for a “payday” fight, be it against a name like McGregor, Diaz, or even a cross sport boxing event, it’s no guarantee that the next time Max throws a punch it will be against Volkanovski.
For now though, both Rodriguez and Holloway will be looking for some ice packs for their severely bruised faces and fists. Holloway will have more than his fair share of options once he’s ready to step back into the octagon. In his post fight interview Holloway exclaimed “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best — and the best is ‘Blessed,’ baby,”. While that was certainly true on Saturday night, there’s still one name left on Max’s list if he wants to regain the title he held from 2017 to 2019.