What flag does Max Holloway carry?
Fighter walkouts are an integral part of the UFC experience and like many fighters, Max Holloway often walks out with a flag of his homeland.
While a quick Google search shows Holloway as an American national, fans are often curious to see that the flag on his shoulder does not have the familiar stars and stripes of the US flag.
What flag does Max Holloway hold?
Max Holloway carries the flag of his home state Hawaii when he walks out to the ring before his fight.
Full name Jerome Max Keli'l Holloway, the former UFC featherweight champion is of Samoan and Hawaiian lineage, and he is incredibly proud of his ancestry.
However, Holloway ran into some obstructions regarding walking out with his flag, and Dana White came to his rescue.
Max Holloway: Dana had to approve of me walking out with my flag
Max Holloway shared on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast that when he first started to walk out with the Hawaiian flag, sponsors Reebok wanted to stop him. Holloway explained that at that time, Reebok only approved walkouts with national flags, and Hawaii being a state, Holloway could not do that as per the company policy.
So the Hawaiian fighter took it to the top brass and got Dana White to say yes to his walkout with the flag.
"They wasn’t going to let me walk out with the Hawaiian flag. When I first started doing it. Cause that’s when the Reebok came out. I couldn’t put Hawaiian flag on my shorts or anything. So I was like, ‘I’m going to walk out with the flag.’ Reebok was stopping it. They were like, ‘you can’t because it’s a state flag,'" Holloway explained.
"I was like, 'nah, we’re going to talk to Dana...' Dana texted me and said, 'That’s stupid as s—t kid, just walk with it.'"
Max Holloway set to challenge Justin Gaethje for the BMF title
Max Holloway's previous appearance in the UFC lightweight division was an absolute five-round war against Dustin Poirier at UFC 236. He lost the interim title fight via unanimous decision and many felt that 'Blessed' should have made a conscious effort to grow his physique into a lightweight instead of throwing himself into the fire against an elite 155-pound fighter.
Five years later, 'Blessed' will return to the 155-pound division to challenge Justin Gaethje for the ceremonial BMF title at this weekend's UFC 300 pay-per-view event. Gaethje vs. Holloway is one of the most anticipated bouts on the card and many expect it to be a legitimate Fight of the Year contender.
At the time of this writing, Holloway is a +170 underdog while Gaethje is the -250 favorite. A potential win this weekend would open the doors to a lot of opportunities for 'Blessed', who shared a critical opinion about lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and seems to have a strong inclination to fight newly crowned 145-pound king Ilia Topuria.