While Max
Holloway is the
UFC’s BMF champ, he is strongly against unnecessary violence
outside of the Octagon.
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Holloway recently spoke out against gun violence, which has
recently been rampant in his home state of Hawaii. When asked about
a shooting in West Oahu, the former featherweight champ urged
Hawaiians to put down the guns and find other ways to solve their
issues.
Holloway noted that settling beefs with fist fights is better than
using guns. “Blessed” also suggests people to go to the gym or play
shooting games instead of taking up real guns.
“It sucks, man. Put the guns down, boys. Put ‘em down,” Holloway
told Hawaiian outlet KHON2. “If you guys got a problem, do it the
old-school way. Go to the boxing gym, put on some gloves and punch
each other and then shake hands and be on with it. I remember when
we was growing up, street fights, I wouldn’t say do it, but
shooting someone is something different. At the end of the day,
stop the violence, go in the gym. Go do something, go lift weights.
Go throw weights. Play video games or something. You wanna shoot
somebody, go play Apex or Call of Duty or something like that.
“Keep the violence off the streets, and you have to think about the
younger generation that’s coming up. I know the generation right
now is super young doing it, but you gotta think of your little
brother, your little sister, your nieces, your nephews. Keep the
streets good for them and keep striving. Let’s not have that bad
taste in our mouth when it comes to the westside. We already got
enough bad news coming out of there. Let’s not add more.”
After three failed title bids against Alexander
Volkanovski, Holloway had lost some relevance in the
featherweight title picture until recently. The Hawaiian accepted a
lightweight matchup against Justin
Gaethje for the BMF title at UFC 300 this past April. Holloway
beat down Gaethje for five rounds before iconically pointing to the
ground for a slugfest and knocking “The Highlight” out in a buzzer
beater. Holloway is now slated to challenge Ilia
Topuria for the featherweight title at UFC 308
on Oct. 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.