Max Holloway spills the secret behind his 'point to the ground' signature move ahead of UFC 308
Max Holloway recently became candid about his signature move ahead of UFC 308. In a bid to become a two-time featherweight champion, Holloway is set to challenge Ilia Topuria for UFC gold at the upcoming pay-per-view event, which will take place on Oct. 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
For context, Holloway advanced to lightweight for the second time in his UFC career, challenging Justin Gaethje for the BMF title at the historic UFC 300 event earlier this year.
In the final ten seconds of the contest, 'Blessed', as he has done before, challenged his opponent to a telephone booth striking exchange by pointing to the center of the octagon, even though he was ahead on the scorecards. Gaethje complied, but a powerful right hand from Holloway sent the 35-year-old straight to the canvas in the last second.
In a recent sitdown with UFC analyst Megan Olivi on ESPN MMA's YouTube channel, Holloway talked about his strategy of inviting his opponents to the middle of the cage to trade blows and how others should do the same. The former champion also revealed where it came from, saying:
''If you want to keep on doing the point down, but just remember guys, when you guys do the point down, it's 'stay there and swing,' not point down and take a couple steps back... It comes from here, it comes from right where you sitting. It comes from the west side of Wahu...in the olden days if we're talking about Hawaiian[s] in the old days, this is where warriors used to live in, warriors are from this side of the island and I believe I embody that and there's just something in me, I'm a fighter.''
Check out Max Holloway's comments below (1:21):
Holloway's knockout against Gaethje immediately went viral on social media, as many MMA fans imitated his move. Notably, the 32-year-old used the same strategy in fights against Ricardo Lamas and Dustin Poirier.
Max Holloway claims he won't fall for Ilia Topuria's mind games
Max Holloway had previously received a stern warning from Ilia Topuria, who threatened to knock him out in the opening round if the Hawaiian pointed to the canvas once again.
However, in a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Holloway responded to Topuria's assertion by saying that he does not intend to fight irresponsibly.
''The belt is called the Blessed Man Forever, or what you guys want to call the Baddest Mother effer. If the belt was the DMF, the Dumbest Mother effer than maybe I would get sucked into [Topuria's mind games]. It's far from that, man. He talks about being a boxer, that's not much boxer IQ of him, but we will see what happens."
Check out Max Holloway's comments below: