Max Holloway is one of the most beloved UFC fighters in the MMA community. Owing to an illustrious and entertaining career throughout, Max is held in very high regard. At the same time, one of the main praises about him remains his granite-like chin.
For those unaware, ‘Blessed’ has been fighting in the UFC since 2012. In that time, he has beaten and faced some of the biggest and most talented names that the sport has ever seen. Over the years, Max has enjoyed some great wins, yet suffered some brutal losses as well. As such, one record he holds is that in his 12 years in the UFC and across 28 fights, Holloway has never been knocked down.
During his UFC career, Holloway has faced some incredible fighters like Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, Alexander Volkanovski, Jose Aldo, and more, yet, not one of them has managed to knock him down. As such, Max’s 7 losses in the UFC have all come by way of a decision loss, barring a submission loss to Poirier in his UFC debut.
Max Holloway reveals the surprising UFC fighter that truly ‘rocked him’
Naturally, over the course of his UFC career, Max Holloway has also taken a lot of hits. However, despite being in some brutal three-round and sometimes five-round wars, it’s hard to pick a time when he was truly ‘rocked’. Thus, fans eventually turned to the fighter himself to ask who was the hardest-hitting opponent he had ever faced.
In an appearance on Andrew Schulz’s FLAGRANT, Holloway revealed the surprising fighter that hit him the hardest, and the answer was very surprising, to say the least.
“With Andre Fili, I remember getting hit one time, he cracked me with something, I don’t even know what he hit me with. I was looking at the scoreboard, it was in Baltimore and I was looking at the time and I was thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing right now?’ I was looking at the time, why am I looking at the time? I should be looking at this guy. That was probably one of the (worst) times ever.”
Notably, Max Holloway faced Andre Fili at UFC 174, all the way back in 2014. Despite getting rocked, Max would go on to get the submission win by way of a guillotine choke. Whilst ‘Touchy’ Fili is a tenured fighter showing glimpses of brilliance, he has always come up short on his opportunity to break into the rankings. Recently, Andre also suffered a brutal KO loss at the hands of Dan Ige at UFC Vegas 86.
Max Holloway has absorbed an absurd amount of strikes in his UFC career
Whilst he is to this day a solid striker, Andre Fili’s glass chin on the other hand, has often let him down, a sign of what could have been Max Holloway’s career if not for his granite chin. One of the most durable fighters in the UFC, Max’s record of not getting knocked down is only matched by Marlon Vera and Jon Jones.
Throughout his career, Holloway, as a pressure fighter and the self-proclaimed ‘best boxer in the UFC’ has outlanded his opponents by a lot. Following his win over Yair Rodriguez in 2021, it was revealed that Max had landed 1,883 significant strikes in his last ten fights, which was more than anyone had in their entire UFC career. Taking into account his brutal beatdowns of Calvin Kattar and Brian Ortega, it is not a difficult thing to imagine.
Max Holloway’s fight against Justin Gaethje is going to be his 29th in the UFC. 40 fighters have competed 25+ times in the UFC. 💪
Holloway is the only one to have never been officially knocked down. 🤯
✍️ @AndyHickeyMMA pic.twitter.com/ltSg9Jn3Qq
— FIGHTING LTD (@fighting_ltd) April 9, 2024
At the same time, Max Holloway had reportedly taken 1811 significant strikes after the Yair fight, absorbing an average of 124 significant strikes per fight. Whilst the number has gone down in his recent fights, he is now set to face Justin Gaethje at UFC 300. A nail-biting affair, to say the least, we will finally see his chin face the ultimate pressure test. Whether he manages to survive and hold on to his record, only time will hopefully tell.