Max
Holloway says fans shouldn’t count him out in grappling against
Charles
Oliveira.
Holloway puts his BMF title on the line in a rematch against
Oliveira at
UFC 326 on March 7 in Las Vegas. A volume puncher, Holloway
believes fans might be undermining his ground game leading up to
his clash against Oliveira, who is a feared submission artist.
“Blessed” admits that even his coaches don’t take him too seriously
when he talks about the possibility of a submission win over
Oliveira. However, Holloway believes both he and Oliveira can hold
their own anywhere the fight goes,. The BMF champion says
submitting a submission artist like “do Bronx” would really do
justice to his title.
‘Never Say Never’
“The narrative is for this fight – If we can keep it on the feet,
it’s me, and if we go to the ground, it’s like 200% [Oliveira].
Which is crazy,” Holloway told ESPN. “I feel like we both fought at the
highest levels… Never say never. My coaches just keep seeing
interviews of me talking about jiu-jitsu and subbing him, and they
laugh. But at the end of the day, people call me crazy, a BMF thing
to do would be to submit a submission artist.”
Holloway (27-8) earned a first-round stoppage win over Oliveira
(36-11) in their first outing in 2015 after the Brazilian suffered
a mysterious neck injury. While Holloway later went on to become
the featherweight champion, Oliveira won the lightweight title.
Both Holloway and Oliveira have since lost their titles, albeit
never straying far from the title picture. Holloway is coming off a
decision win over Dustin
Poirier that saw him rebound from a knockout loss against
Ilia
Topuria. Meanwhile, Oliveira comes off a submission win over
Mateusz
Gamrot that also saw him rebound from a knockout loss against
Topuria.