MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Max Holloway Resume Review | UFC 276: Volkanovski-Holloway III

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

The Resume Review is BACK! Luke and Brian will be breaking down Max Holloway's resume ahead of his UFC 276 fight with Alexander Volkanovski. The guys relive Max's journey to this trilogy match. (3:00) - Dustin Poirier vs. Max Holloway (8:00) - Justin Lawrence vs. Max Holloway (11:40) - Leonard Garcia vs. Max Holloway (15:30) - Max Holloway vs. Dennis Bermudez (17:30) - Conor McGregor vs. Max Holloway (23:50) - Max Holloway vs. Will Chope (28:25) - Cub Swanson vs. Max Holloway (33:00) - Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira (35:50) - Max Holloway vs. Jeremy Stephens (38:05) - Max Holloway vs. Ricardo Lamas (42:00) - Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis (45:30) - Jose Aldo vs. Max Holloway (50:00) - Max Holloway vs. Jose Aldo II (56:25) - Max Holloway vs. Brian Ortega (64:20) - Max Holloway vs. Dustin Poirier II (70:10) - Max Holloway vs. Frankie Edgar (74:50) - Max Holloway vs. Alexander Volkanovski I & II (75:22) - Max Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar (79:00) - Max Holloway vs. Yair Rodriguez Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Come on in, The water is fine. And on Saturday, July 2nd, UFC 276 from Las Vegas,

a co-main event with potential historical implications when Max Holloway challenges Alexander Volkanovsky for his UFC featherweight title. The third meeting between the pair. Why does that matter to one Brian Campbell and Luke Thomas of Morning Combat right now? Because we're going to hit up how Max Holloway got to this point and how that may affect his third meeting for the title in today's Morning Combat resume review.

Talking all things Holloway. Resume. Tell me Holloway. Right, Luke? You feeling what I'm feeling right now? It's been over 10 years he's been in the UFC. Wow. At 30 years old, the Hawaiian native, a future Hall of Famer, a former champion.

And Luke, when you go up and down his resume, which we did, you're talking about fights against the greatest fighters of this era. You're talking about a consistently high-level entertainment type of production from Max. But you're also talking about the evolution of one of the greatest fighters in the history of this sport. It's very rare that we can say a 30-year-old who doesn't hold a title right now,

and again, that could change on July 2nd, but it's very rare for us to be like, he's 30, he doesn't have a belt, and he is an automatic Hall of Famer. You can just tell from this point on, everything he's done to this moment is remarkable. We're going to hit up the high points, the low points. His evolution beginning with his, what, 2012 UFC debut

against Dustin Poirier all the way through today. But one note, we're going to be hitting you across the border for UFC 276 from Morning Combat. We're not going to touch the first two Volkanovski fights on today's resume review because Max has so many other great ones, but we will be having plenty of bonus content looking back. We're going to do a special video on just the Volkanovski fights, so we'll give him

a brief mention today, but if you're wondering when we're going to talk about that, there is a future video incoming. It may give you a chance to watch that fight for the 50th time in reference to that rematch between the two, but the third fight is where it happens on Saturday, July 2nd, but Luke, let's start, let's do it. Let's go all the way back to the beginning.

Resume review used to be known as a curse, but I think that curse is over. Thank you, Canelo Alvarez, right? And Francis beat it. And Francis beat it with his wrestling. Luke, let's go back to where it started for Max Holloway. At the time of his UFC debut, the 4-0 fighter from Hawaii was the youngest fighter in the UFC at that time.

At what, age 20? Yes, 20. And this was just his fifth fight. And his featherweight debut, as a matter of fact. 4-0 coming in. UFC 143 in Las Vegas is the pay-per-view. Of course, that UFC 143 card was main evented by Nate Diaz and Carlos Condit. Nick Diaz and Carlos

Condit, excuse me. This, Luke, was Max Holloway for the first time against Dustin Poirier, the rising featherweight star who was given that treatment by the announced crew here on FX. This was the preliminary featured bout. Luke, heading into this fight, did you know

much about Max Holloway? Were they banging the drum besides the age factor at just 20? He had competed in X1, which is a regional promotion from the neck of the woods that he's in. They often pull a lot of fighters in from sometimes Japan, sometimes Guam, sometimes Hawaii, some of the other places around there.

And no, I had not heard of him. I had not heard of him at all. Dustin Poirier I'd heard a little bit about, obviously, but not Max. And it was not, he has become something fantastic and special. Started out quite humble. Yeah, if you're looking for a UFC record, they mentioned on this broadcast that it was

17-year-old Dan Lozon a few years earlier who had set that record for youngest fighter to ever enter this promotion. But 20- year-old Max fighting 23-year-old Dustin Poirier. And if you want to know where Paulyway was, 11 and 1, 23 years old, four fight win streak coming in that stretched across WEC

and UFC. Goldberg giving him the future star treatment. And it was Max Holloway who took this fight on late notice just four weeks after Ricardo Lamas pulled out. So Luke, this is UFC 143. They're comparing a young Max Holloway to Anthony Pettis to start on this broadcast.

Did you like that early comparison? You know, not so much. I mean, there probably were some similarities, but I think what you really take from this performance was Max obviously had some interesting ability, a lot of gusto, but he was so green. So green. So raw. You can see the inklings of what he eventually became, but this is a very, I mean, listen, I mean, everyone goes to the UFC at different times when they're ready or not or whatever the moment calls for, feeling on short notice.

He probably got advised this was a great way to get entry into the organization, but it deserves to be noted. It wasn't until I think a couple of years later before he really got his feet under him. And this one did not go to plan. Well, the Pettis comparison seemed apt early when Holloway lands two flying knees. Joe Rogan yells, he's wild, man. But then as it settled in more to a fight, I like the poise. Poirier at this point, a couple years older, but 11-1, had fought better competition. The poise right away of Poirier knowing, I don't want to necessarily chase this guy and get into a battle with him. Let me pick him apart on the outside.

That worked. That led to Poirier taking him down. Suddenly, Luke, he's in full mount, and you can really see the difference in experience and skill at this point. Yeah, you didn't see Max panic. He didn't panic in the contest, but he also didn't have much of an answer. And, of course, he tries to roll. Poirier, we know, fantastic ground game,

is able to use that to then capture a triangle and then the arm, and then of course, he seals the deal there. But I would actually say, going back to that, I'm not gonna say he was even on the feet, but Max, to the point that they talked about in the commentary booth, and which we're bringing up now, he was kinda all over the place,

jumping into range, leaving his feet. I think Poirier thought, let me just take this to the ground and sort of seal this with a more controlling type of fight. I worked at this point in 2012 on ESPN's MMA Live, which had been birthed four years earlier and was experiencing good. It led to John Anik going to the UFC and all that. But they had Max Holloway on before this fight. It's sort of a new name on the scene, fighting a very recognized name in Poirier. And I remember thinking, just 20 years old. I know. What were you doing at 20?

Dropping out of college, working full-time at a nursing home in the kitchen. I mean, not great things, Luke. This guy is out here. But the thing is, as much as I've seen this fight, I don't remember if I watched it live, but I remember knowing what happened. It's still the crushing nature of how badly Max was dominated. It's still shocking looking back. Full mount goes into an armbar, into a triangle attempt, and essentially it's Dustin Poirier sitting.

It makes him look a little white belt shit, right? As they say. There was just a big difference on the ground at that point. Well, he not only got the tap, Max bleeding from the eye from the earlier strikes. It also deserves to be noted, while this was his featherweight debut, he must have fought lightweight very much undersized.

Poirier, obviously, we know goes up to 155 and fills out. Now he might even be fighting at 170. Max was not just, not the technician that he eventually became, but he physically looked very undersized at that moment. He would bounce back, Luke, in the fight a few months later, June 1st of 2012

by defeating Pat Schilling by decision on the Ultimate Fighter finale. But did you check out this fight? His third in the UFC. UFC 150 against Justin Lawrence. I'd forgotten how wild this Kempo Karate man was. You know what? But this is the first fight where you kind of lose sight of it, right?

Because when you think about Max Holloway, what do you think? You think boxing? You think his jab? You think his ability to switch stance? You think the kinds of things that that brings up? What this fight showed was something that I think gets lost. It's still part of Max's game, but you see it here. Body work. Body work. He is

an absolute madman going to the body, jabbing to the body. This one had more knees to the body, which was one that initially hurt him. But I just want to point out what Max eventually became. Some of the seeds of that body work were planted in this fight. It was August 11, 2012, UFC 150 in Denver. If we recall, that's Henderson-Edgar II for the lightweight championship.

This was the opening bout of the pay-per-view card. And once again, like when he fought Dustin Poirier, 20 years old against 22-year-old Justin Lawrence. Now, Lawrence, we don't— Lawrence was the guy who was hyped up to be maybe the next big thing. He was the guy who was undefeated coming into this contest, I believe,

and folks had been saying, oh, he might be something special, and of course, he was very well-rounded, very talented. I mean, this is the main part of the pay-per-view. This is a decent hype

because as bad as Max looked in the debut, which he took on last-minute notice, the decision went over Pat Schilling. He had stuffed all 17 takedown attempts,

so that was a maturing victory. But what we saw against Lawrence, who came in with such a decorated karate background, had won so many tournaments in different disciplines of mixed martial arts, you can see right off the start that there's some danger coming back at him here. Right, but Max was what he always is, unafraid. Took the fight to him, never seemed to back down.

Even against Poirier, you could say he was aggressive to a fault, maybe. There's a difference here. He's the counter puncher this time in this fight. Yes, but I'm saying he didn't back down from the tricks of his opponent. He didn't wilt under pressure. He kind of met the moment as it was required,

and then as it went on, you see that knee, the left knee to the body that begins to hurt him, and then he falls up from there. Rogan calling the respect Max shows of the power very respectful and makes the comparison that he didn't show that same respect to Poirier and maybe that cost him but how about that nice front kick to the balls

from Max and then Max would close the round with a second knee. You could have taken a point away from him there. You could have. Again, this is not the refined. If you've seen Max in the last four years, you're so used to much a refined, polished, accurate guy. It actually says a lot that short of these, I can't remember any other time where he's hit someone low

and the fight had to be multi-verbal. No, it's weird to see him in that spot. So he'd go down to finish the first round walking down Lawrence, cut him on the hairline, Luke, and above the eye with left hooks. And it's just overall, you're seeing a much more poised, controlled Max. The combos, the setups, the distance control, much different than what we saw against Poirier.

And then in round two, it's the length to walk him down in the boxing, but it's the focus on the body. There was an earlier knee, which looked like it changed Lawrence's posture and body language, but then another hard knee that sets up that two-punch combo to the body. Luke, that's a brutal finish right there.

Super brutal finish, and again, this is sort of the part where you begin to realize Max, one thing that Max has become very good at is if you're hurt, he will not give you an inch to move, an ounce to breathe whatsoever. You begin to see some of that here, investing in the body, and then once you see Lawrence kind of cover up a little bit, he was merciless to get the finish.

Absolutely. Lawrence would go on to close his pro career in 2018 with seven fights under the Bellator banner, including a split decision to Emmanuel Sanchez, who was a title challenger two times, and a decision loss in his final fight to AJ McKee on the come up at Bellator 197. But you feel like you never really heard from him on a high level after this fight. It just goes to show prospecting is hard in any sport. Like how many guys get drafted in the NFL in the first round that just don't kind of pan out. In D.C., Sua Cravens would be a big sort of example of that. Everyone kind of thought that.

No one at that point, maybe outside of his team or the folks in Hawaii, were sort of pegging Max as a future great. Of course, it was very early with Justin Lawrence as well, but there was a lot of chatter about what Lawrence, because remember, the early era of MMA was like, let's take a wrestler and teach him to do certain things, but that's all that he does. Lawrence was one of these first prototypes that was coming through, like, oh, he can do everything.

Let's see what that means. And that's still valuable, obviously, but against better guys or guys that, in the case of Max, who were destined for greatness, just wasn't enough. As great as Max looked against Lawrence, his next fight would get very interesting and was sort of an early lesson. At 6-1, just five months later, December 29, 2012, a 6-1 Holloway would take on a last-minute replacement. It was supposed to be Cody McKenzie of McKenzie teen fame. He got injured. Slugging WEC veteran Leonard Garcia steps in. The stage is UFC 155 in Vegas. That's Kane, JDS2 in the main event.

But Luke, we know Leonard Garcia's reputation as fan-friendly to a fault. They talked about it as he's walking to the cage. He did enter on a three-fight losing skid and would lose to Cody McKenzie in his next fight and get cut. Coming in, re-watching this, kind of forgetting what happened, he looked a little washy in the beginning. Garcia. It's like, oh, Max is gonna... He got tuned up in the first a little bit. Not

terribly, but you could see Max is definitely gonna be able to take advantage of that wild style that Leonard was famous for. And also the commentary booth could not stop talking about Leonard Garcia and how wild he could. And then you could hear Greg Jackson the whole time on the broadcast trying to bring Leonard to a more centered middle. Joe was almost talking about him disparagingly,

saying basically whatever game plan he has, it's going to go out the window the first time he gets cracked. Well, he got pieced up in the first round, but in round two, Luke, the wily old brawler himself, Leonard Garcia, starts letting those hands go. And suddenly he's catching Max with right hands that in the first round he was coming up so short on or really wasn't getting off. What do you think changed that brought Garcia back in a big way? Maybe a little bit of confidence for Max. Again, also his distance management wasn't quite as good back then.

I'm not sure he knew how to deal with brawlers the way that he would these days. So I think, again, he had a very strong first round. He was outlanding him, and I think he outlanded him in all three rounds. So as much as Garcia tried in terms of the numeric total of strikes, Max was still busier and still able to do some good work. But listen, Leonard Garcia was also a veteran. And we talked about it before, guys who sometimes don't go for it. Leonard Garcia might have had limited ability, but he did go for it.

Garcia got big confidence from the right hands he landed in round two. The fight looked even going into the third. Also the takedown. The takedown he had for about a minute or so in the second round, which probably maybe swayed some of the judges. And you don't see Max getting taken down that easily anymore. Not anymore. You just don't see that.

So round three is where this is a pivotal fight. Max is facing legitimate. I mean, yeah, he got finished early against Poirier in that last-minute fight, but this is where he's kind of getting gassed out for the first time, and he's had to fight through legitimate adversity. His technique is still better. He's landing cleaner shots in round three against Garcia, but Garcia is still hurting him and backing him up.

And he closes, Max, with a very final 10 seconds. It's not good, Luke. He goes for a spinning shit, gets taken down after he misses it. He tries to get a triangle choke, but Leonard Garcia at the buzzer picks him up and spikes him down on his head. You've got Leonard Garcia celebrating, running around, looking like he won the Super Bowl.

Max picks him up and shows a lot of respect and hugs him. But we go to the scorecards, not really sure where this is going because you talk about the stats. Garcia would outland him 121 to 85 in total strikes, plus two to nothing in takedowns.

You could have made a case here at the scorecards that this was Garcia's fight. Looking back, do you think it could have been? Well, I think those, we may have to redo this. I think those stats are wrong because according to Fight Metric, Holloway landed 120 to Elena Garcia's 89. And in that third round in particular,

Holloway was 51 to 39. So again- Okay, my stats are wrong. The ones from the broadcast can always be a little bit iffy, but the final tally shows it. But what I will say was this was a good fight for Max, particularly that first round,

but he didn't put a big distance between himself and Leonard Garcia. You would have thought if a guy's going to be as technical as Max can sometimes be because he can't out-brawl Leonard, right? That was not going to be in the cards. He had to do something else. And in this particular case, you saw enough of that. But you're right. He had the takedown Leonard did in the second round. He had the takedown in the cards. He had to do something else. And in this particular case, you saw enough of that. But you're right.

He had the takedown Leonard did in the second round. He had the takedown in the third. There was a couple times where Max was kind of giving up good position or otherwise good scenarios. But in the end, Max got it done. 29-28 on all three cards, but two of them in the favor of Holloway. So it's a survive in advance. But Luke, this would lead right into the beginning of a two-fight losing streak.

Albeit though, the first one came at UFC 60 against Dennis Bermudez. It would go down as a split decision loss for Holloway, but Luke, 11 of 11 cage-side media members did score it for him right there. The thing is this one. This was also, what year was this? So this was 2012, 2013?

This was still a time in MMA where judges were maybe over, okay, I'll put it this way. Relative to modern considerations, so in 2022, this was an era of MMA where wrestling could steal rounds. Maybe it shouldn't have, but it could. So in this particular fight, particularly in that first round against Bermudez, dude, Max Holloway looked awesome.

Bermudez could not fight him on the feet. So he looked like he bounced back from some of the things that went wrong against Garcia at the very least. That's right, but the problem was Bermudez. Dude, Max Holloway looked awesome. Bermudez could not fight him on the feet. So he looked like he bounced back from some of the things that went wrong against Garcia at the very least. That's right. But the problem was Bermudez, as we all know, sort of that short, short, squatty wrestler type, good, good athlete, by the way, great cardio as well. I think the cardio might've cost him a little bit here as well for Max Holloway. But I, you know, you go back to it. He had, in terms of the, what the numbers say in the first round, Bermudez 0 for 3 on takedowns in the second round, 1 for 3. Here's the big difference.

That by itself had control time of about a minute. And in the third round, BC, this is where it fell apart for Max. 3 for 3 on takedowns for Dennis Bermudez with a control time of over two minutes. In that era of MMA, that is considered very dominant wrestling. And that would show you that Max, if he wants to win, either A, has to get a better guard, or B, you've got to stop those before they get going Max is learning on the job. This is 15 months now into his UFC career. He's already had five fights I know we point out something here about his career that I just maybe should I fight in his first 15 months That's that's that's on the job learn. Listen to this in 2012. He fought four times 2013 twice 2014

He fought four times 2015, he fought four times. 2015, he fought four times. 2016, twice. 2017, twice. 2018, once. 2019, three times. And then, of course, after that, it's been a little bit up and down with the pandemic and everything else. But for that early middle stage of his career, what did he do? He stayed busy, busy as he possibly could.

He's 7-2, and on May 25, 2013, UFC Fight night card in Boston. It's Shogun Hua against Chael Sonnen in the main event. But Luke, this goes down as two future stars at a very early point in their career. As Conor McGregor, in just his second UFC appearance, his US debut, Max just 21, Conor just 25. He had just blown away. Who was it in his debut? Marcus Brimage. Marcus Brimage. And looked like a million bucks. And Luke, he got the dark treatment. They turned out the house lights for his entrance in Boston. It's obviously one of his.

And remember, he was on the prelim card. This was not even on the main card. And they brought the lights down for him. This was the prelim co-main on Fox for this fight night card. And the quote from Joe Rogan is, I really can't recall a guy with one UFC fight getting this type of treatment for an entrance. This guy is a normal dude. He's not Brock Lesnar. This is something unusual. This kid has got something. Obviously, we know what McGregor

would build very shortly after this with that momentum. But Anik jumping in saying these guys are on their feet in the crowd like it's the main event. It had that people's main event feel, as you mentioned. It was supposed to be, though, Max facing, I'm sorry, Conor facing Andy Ogle. Do you remember him? He pulled out with an injury, and it's Max Holloway taking the fight last minute. Luke, we look back on this one like we do Max's UFC debut

against Poirier. It's so damn early. It's hard to take a ton away from this, but is it in hindsight now that we know that both fighters were facing injuries coming in? Yes, and well, McGregor tore his ACL in the middle of that contest. In fact, it's kind of funny. If you look at the numbers on this, he attempted five takedowns, McGregor catching four of them. When was the last time McGregor attempted five takedowns?

Oh, he leaned into it to get the job done. We'll get to that in a second, but McGregor would reveal afterwards that he had torn his ACL. He had a posterior horn meniscus tear, he also strained his MCL, and he claimed it was 14 weeks before the fight, so maybe something happened in the fight to reactivate it, but he claimed it was an 80% tear of his ACL

and he could barely walk in the days leading up to it. This is early McGregor who will fight anybody at any time under any circumstance. Even though this shows about Max and his growth, to see early McGregor wrestle because he had to, to win a close-ish fight, not that close, but a tough fight because of injuries, that's an impressive turn of events

and early growth for a rising star. Max, in the end, you didn't really get to love a lot or learn a lot from him. He didn't do much, Luke. This is one of those wins that, you look back and you can just tell, a lot or learn a lot from him. It wasn't a, he didn't do much, Luke. This is one of those wins that for, you look back and you can just tell when McGregor

and Max met the first time, they were in very different places in their development. McGregor was far ahead because it wasn't just that McGregor was beating him up on the feet, BC.

He got the takedowns too, as I mentioned. And you mentioned how Poirier had moved to Mount. So did McGregor. McGregor found Mount in this contest as well. It's so weird to watch him as the aggressive wrestler going after his. It's crazy.

And he was good at it too. Like some of the takedowns he was hitting, changing directions, going and clubbing over the top for the knee tap. Like McGregor really shined in this one. This was really, of course, we knew from the promotion of it, the McGregor show. And I got to say, he beat Max everywhere. He beat him on the ground. He beat him in the clinch. He beat him along the fence line. He beat him at distance. This was McGregor,. And I gotta say, he beat Max everywhere. He beat him on the ground, he beat him in the clinch, he beat him along the fence line, he beat him at distance. This was McGregor,

by the way, also not learning from his mistakes, throwing all those kicks. It didn't cost him in the end. Spinning wheel kick to open the fight. But we would see later that that would not be a great management of his resources. For me, this was, I mentioned, like, you know, Max coming to the UFC in his fifth fight. He was still trying to figure out who he was. He was still trying to figure out what worked for him, what style do you want to develop. McGregor had already advanced past that, so when they met, it was not a great meeting for Max.

This is still 21-year-old Max, even though he's got five UFC fights up to this point. They're at different levels, there's no question about it. But do you think, now, because this is Conor's meteor stretch. His first seven fights, Luke, this is the only one that went the distance. Did it go the distance because Max turned out to be an all-time great, hiding under that young fighter and has a great chin, and no one really knocks Max out?

I mean, no one does. Or was it because Conor was also injured and it changed the strategy and this became a grappling? In re-watching it to prep for today's show, I hadn't thought about that. I think it's a little column A, column B. Conor's diversity of offense speaks to his abilities, but it also speaks to his injuries or whatever was limiting him. And again, I'm sure that Max probably was not 100% either.

It was a change of opponent last notice. He was filling in. We get the whole story. But to me, I can grant that part of it was circumstantial, but I also just believe the real big takeaway was Max just didn't have an identity yet. Yes. That was the thing I took from this.

McGregor had an identity here. He wasn't fully polished either, but you could see what he was. After this fight was over, I was like, who is Max Holloway? I couldn't answer that question following the McGregor fight. That's the macro way to look at it. The micro is he had just extreme trouble,

which everyone did at this point with the speed of that left-handed McGregor who would just sneak in and get closer than you realized he was, hit you hard with that left hand. And by the end of the first round, you're seeing Max with a reddened face. In the body language, it says, like, what is this guy I'm going up against? But it also showcased. So I guess the point I'm trying to say is whether they were both injured,

because I'm trying to figure, I was trying to research, I thought Max also had an injury. He might have, yeah. Whether that or not, it seemed like there was nothing Max was going to be able to do to beat this version of Conor McGregor. That's right. On that night, it was just not going,

short of some kind of fluke, it was not going to happen. Conor was clearly better. But to the point that you raised, Max was eating a fair amount of punishment. Fight Metrics says it wasn't a huge onslaught. They gave him 53 significant strikes and again, four or five takedowns. But I would say that what McGregor was landing

was pretty authoritative in many, many cases. You know, big kicks, big punches that were landing. Dude, Max showed a good chin. And we would see later that Max's chin has been legendary. This was one of the first, because even in the Poirier fight, he was a little bit even-ish on the feet. And then you get taken to the ground. Well, okay, that's a different scenario when you're fully controlled.

But how do you respond when you're getting hit really hard on the feet? Dude, Max took it in stride. It was pretty impressive. Max, now 3-3 in the UFC after that loss. That's his second straight loss when Conor McGregor defeated him. So, Luke, we turn the calendar year to 2014, January 4th of that loss. That's his second straight loss when Conor McGregor defeated him. So Luke, we turn the calendar year to 2014, January 4th of that year. A 7-3 max on the

Singapore UFC Fight Night card, headlined by Tariq Safedine against Lim. Who the heck's Lim? Hung Kyu Lim, I think. Yes. Okay. At first I'm like, that's not Stungun, that's Dong Young Kim. No, that's Dong Young Kim. Hung Kyu Lim. Okay, I don't remember that man. He was a marauder.

He was not super polished, but he was fun. What's his face for? Mike Perry fought him, I believe. Holloway would take on Will Chope, a name we don't bring up a lot, but the 6'4 Chope was making his UFC debut, and Luke, he began his career 5-5. By this point, he was 19-5,

riding a 14-fight win streak outside of the UFC. Well, Luke, he would take this fight and after losing, we would never see him again in the UFC, although he kept fighting in other various things. He had moved from the States to, what, Thailand, they were saying on the broadcast? You can see that kickboxing influence

and he definitely looked like he was a threat. He was also 6'4 featherweight, which is just freaking... Yeah, so the issue with Will Ch show was that I think after this fight it was revealed He may have had a domestic violence incident in his recent past that could explain why we never saw him Right and so I think the UFC just decided to move on from him I think he claimed innocence or that it was and it was poorly understood But either way that it this was when the UFC was still doing by the way The code of conduct for example so that it ushered in his demise

But I think I want to make a point here very quickly. You mentioned it, January of 2014. This is the beginning of Max Holloway. This is the beginning, that is the moment, this is the beginning of when Max Holloway, A, puts together the best run of his career, and B, this is when he begins to develop an identity as a fighter.

When the fight's over, you can be like, I can see his signature, I can read his fingerprint, I know who this guy is as a fighter. This would be fight one of a 13-fight win streak that put Max Holloway eventually in the Hall of Fame, but he's still a 30-year-old active fighter fighting for a championship right now. But it's like, this is the beginning of a run

that I'm trying to think off the top of my head in terms of youth and giant success and names and titles won. Like, Jon Jones has that type of achievement at that young age, but it's very rare to see somebody, like we can see a McGregor who arrived on the scene, suddenly like a finished product and hit higher notes than anybody, but then it was over. This is the beginning of, it's January 4th, 2014. It went all the way through the last win of the stretch, which was December 8th, 2018. So this stretch from the opening of 2014 to the end of 2018, 13 consecutive wins over some of the biggest names in the division's history.

In some cases, the promotion's history. But Luke Chope was 23 years old, 6-inch reach advantage at 6'4". And suddenly he's busting up Max's nose in the first round. This was not an easy night at the office, off the start at least. No, not off the start, but I thought, yes, he had a little bit of adversity at first, and obviously Chope had much more experience than him. Maybe not as quality of experience given some of the places he was fighting, but certainly significantly more.

But 24 fights in 23 years? That's a lot. That's a lot. But in the end, I think what really I took from this was this was the beginning of Max really getting good at distance management timing. That was the one I took for this. Timing on his punches was so sharp where he was getting in between Chope's punches or when he would let Chope punch and he would go after it. He was beginning to really develop a sense of when to go and when not to, and by the time the second round was in full swing after about a minute, dude, he had Chope in

big trouble. Max closed round one with some vicious knees to the body where it looked like his opponent was kind of lucky that the bell saved him from further punishment. Round two was just all Max, but a spinning back kick to the body really set up. Along the fence line too. It was good brawling against the fence and suddenly brutal body punches. The same aggressive spirit. It's funny, I don't think of Max Holloway as a finisher.

In fact, that was part of why I was behind the curve throughout this 13-fight win streak going, Holloway's good, but man, I don't see top-end knockout power. He would, you know, brutalize Jose Aldo twice and completely shut me down with that. But this had the intensity of the Jose Aldo finish, of the Justin Lawrence finish, this body attack. Once he had you hurt when he was on the

rise right here, he might not be a one-punch stoppage guy, but he'll put it on you, Luke. He'll put it on you, and again, he's accurate, he's got high volume. Again, you just look at the numbers. Will Chope had 33 significant strikes landed. Max Holloway had two knockdowns in 74. So he had basically more than double the output

that a guy like Will Chope could produce, and again, with the two knockdowns along the way, how was he able to do that? Because Chope was kind of lost. And there was a moment there, late in the first, early in the second, where you see Chope leading with uppercuts, chasing him. Dude, Max ate him alive for that. Luke, Max would go on to get four more wins over the next year-plus

heading into the next fight we're going to focus on, which is Cub Swanson, where he was riding a five-fight win streak. But to get there, submitted Andre Tucci-Feely in round three, knocks out Clay Collard, who would go on to top-ranked boxing fame and now in the PFL, knocks out Akira Kurosani, and then takes a decision from Cole Miller. And by the way, dominant in the Cole Miller fight as well. So we head into now April 18, 2015, and and a Max Holloway who's 12-3 overall, taking on a Cub Swanson. Although he was fresh off a submission loss to a non-champion Frankie Edgar,

Luke, the run he had had before that was a six-fight win streak. Do you want to know some of the names he beat? Sure. Cub Swanson, Ross Pearson, Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier, Dennis Seaver, Jeremy Stevens. although he had lost to Frankie Edgar, as I mentioned, this is probably Max's highest profile fight. He fought bigger names in Poirier and McGregor earlier, but he's now on a five-fight win streak against a guy who just snapped a six-fight win streak. It's UFC on Fox from Newark.

I remember this card well. Machida, Rockhold in that main event. Luke, do you remember having any kind of expectations coming in? Because Swanson was an established name who had beaten future champions. Dude, Swanson fought Jose Aldo in WEC. I mean, this guy had been facing the best for far longer than someone like Max Holloway up to that point.

This was also, we talked about the Will Cho fight being the beginning of Max. But to your point, the Cubs-Swanson fight is the next turn in that evolution. That's when, yes, you still get a sense of Max's greatness and his progress and his improvements and his identity, but this is when he's turning it up just past the guys who are good fighters but not great. Cub Swanson's a great fighter. To all the names you mentioned, heavy hitter, battle-tested, black belt in jiu-jitsu, has been on big cards, has been against big fighters,

had been in the kind of situations at a much higher level than Max had. Yes, he had losses to Poirier and McGregor, but when he lost to those guys, they weren't elite contenders. Cub Swanson was an elite contender when they fought. That was the big difference. Max had shown a lot of growth in what is now a five-fight win streak at this point, but to see him come out in round one against Cub and switch southpaws so easily

and a right hook instantly swelling the left eye of Cub, the difference between this fight and the Will Chokwin just, what, a year and a half ago is already a giant leap in terms of the comfortability, the smooth roll. You know, when he gets in that flow, I mean, this is the Max that we know now. It's coming out in this fight.

Also, to me, I believe this is the first time I saw him really physically fill out. This is where he is still, because now he can make featherweight, but it's a little bit of a challenge for him at age 30. This is however many years ago at this point. So this is about seven years ago. So was he 23, 24, something like that. But you can begin to see he's developing man strength at this point, and that's very helpful because it wasn't so much the biggest deal

in this particular contest, but in subsequent ones where he has to defend the takedown against really aggressive, strong wrestlers, he had filled out more to get there. Or in this particular case, chasing the guillotine, he was kind of physically laying it on Cub a little bit there as well. Yeah, to get to that guillotine,

he closed round one by buckling Cub with a hook, and you got Joe Rogan saying, look, he's taking it to Cub. This is one of the best performances we've ever seen from Max. More of switching stances in round two from Max, going to the body, just unpredictable. You're really seeing the full sort of, it's hard to pick up this guy's timing because Max goes high and low, so he mixes in body shots, comes back with uppercuts. You're seeing the full package. In round three, Rogan saying this is Max Holloway's finest performance without question in the octagon he's fighting very technical against a very dangerous guy luke uh knees to the body punches upstairs then now he's taking the back and he's doing the triangle again this is a cub swanson who was

six and one over his last seven with wins over future champions this was pretty one-sided in the end it was pretty one-sided in the end. It was pretty one-sided. It was surprisingly how he was able to do it. And again, one part of Max's game that's either missing now or he just doesn't go to it, he used to, and you can see up to this point, not just in this contest, he used to hunt the back pretty frequently. Didn't always result in rear naked chokes, obviously.

He doesn't have a whole lot of those on his record. But he was constantly aggressive situations you're talking about him not being a finisher at least that was the impression that you had no one did he get the finish here but dude like he was clearly hunting it like there was a certain posture he had where he wasn't trying to win rounds he wasn't trying to just win exchanges he was really trying to damage these guys and then really put them in compromised positions there was a certain attentiveness to this in this particular contest that maybe I didn't see in some other ones, like the Cole Miller fight. Absolutely. And he would go on, Luke, to pull off a third round submission win via guillotine.

Max had kind of systematically took him apart and hurt him, took him to the ground, got it. Rogan screams, what a spectacular performance. He rose to the occasion, Luke. Six fight win streak for a still ridiculously young Max Holloway. And in the next fight, you talk about another early matchup before both of them became who they were. Just a few months later, it's August of 2015.

It's UFC Fight Night, and now in his first main event, Max Holloway welcomes Doe Bronx, Charles Oliveira, who, of course, Luke, by this point, is a dangerous featherweight, but he's a guy who mixes spectacular wins and losses still. Unfortunately, we never got to learn what we were supposed to learn from this fight because this main event, Luke, from Saskatchewan, from Saskatoon, it would be a TKO,

but it would almost have a no-contest feel. So what happened to the esophagus of Charlie Oliveira? It was weird. It looked like a strike for sure against the cage. He kind of held it. When I watched it in real time, I was like, did he mess up his shoulder? What was the issue? Basically, there was a strike and you see Oliveira collapsed near the fence line.

Max doesn't want to go into the guard. He backs up. The referee instructs him to stand and he, and then just kind of holds like here like this, and then turns away and walks off, and then that's the fight. There's really nothing to say beyond that. This by the way, we haven't done a Charles Oliveira resume review, people talk about him being a quitter, people talk about him, all these things that don't seem relevant anymore, but if you're wondering why people thought that, it's fights like this. He had tough fights that he had lost before, you know

It's okay. It's whatever you fight tough guys. You're gonna lose some, you know, the Paul Felder one He was hammering him. This is one of the ones our folks thought like, okay Max is good But Charles is flaky. Yes in the end We know what Charles has become what max has become but this was not this was if you're wondering where the seeds of doubt of Olivera come from they come from nights like this. Now, coming into the fight, though, Charles Oliveira had been riding a four-fight win streak. We'd already seen him lose to Cub Swanson, Frankie Edgar, Donald Cerrone, Jim Miller. But a four-fight win streak, he beat Jeremy Stephens, he beat Nick Lentz.

But, you know, sort of a weird strike hits him and he's done. And TKO, esophageal injury. But it's a seven-fight win streak. At this point for Max Holloway, are you thinking future title challenger? Seven in a row in a good division. After he, yes, yes I am. After he won these, I began thinking, okay, this dude is very special. Plus, if you've been paying attention to his improvement fight over fight, we're talking

about so many fights, but these are in short order. The improvement fight over fight was extraordinary. Obviously, this is not the best showcase of it because of how short it was, but the Swanson one was. He followed it up here. Oliveira didn't want any more, and you're like, okay,

we are getting very close to the very, very top of this division. Let's see what he can do. In Max's fourth fight of 2015, he gets another prime placement fresh off the main event and the UFC Fight Night. Now he's gonna be on the pay-per-view main card. UFC 194, December 12th, Las Vegas.

We remember this fight card well, Luke, of course, because of Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo finally meeting in the same division in the main event for the featherweight title, and also Rockhold Weidman for the middleweight title in the co-main event. This main card also had, how about this for depth, Yoel Romero against Jacare Sousa,

Damian Maia against Gunnar Nelson. And kicking off this pay-per-view, Max Holloway against the hard-hitting Jeremy Stephens. You know, in terms of the stakes, it's another big name. And Stephens had fought everybody up to this point. He was proven dangerous. We saw a, I don't want to say a safe Max, because that's not true. But a guy who respected the power coming back at him. So it's another wrinkle of having to see him.

We've seen him as the aggressor. Now we're seeing him looking to be more of the counterpuncher. I think that's a fair assessment. And the reason why you can point to the sort of measured sense of things is also, how about this? We talked about him beginning, you saw this in the Cub Swanson fight. Obviously, he's been working on it the whole time, but these moments where they reveal themselves more than others.

He stuffed 11 of Jeremy Stevens' takedown attempts, which is to say all of them. Now, that's not just from physical heft. It's also technical skill. But this is the point I wanted to make. As he worked on his technical skill, as his physical tools as well developed, now you're seeing that unity come together

where he's able to not just outstrike these guys, which we kind of knew he could maybe do up to this point. He's shutting them down physically. He's shutting them down in the wrestling department. And the rest of his game has room to breathe at this point. A very defining fight. Not a historic fight in the sense you'll remember it as one of the biggest max fights, but one of those ones where it was a clear indication of the progress he was making for future fights.

Yeah, the fight made a lot of sense because although Stevens can alternate wins and losses, Stevens had lost to Cub Swanson and Charles Oliveira by decision in succession, but that was after a four-fight win streak. Then he came back and TKO'd Dennis Bermudez, who had beaten Max, although that was obviously disputed. In the end, though, Max did avoid the big one here and got the decision win. So it is a bit of survive in advance in some ways. Yes. Again, of all the Max fights, this one won't go down as the most legendary,

but it is an important contribution to the overall resume, of course, as well as an indication of the development he had made to that fight. Eight straight wins for Max. Now I remember heading into UFC 199 in 2016. You're starting to talk about uncrowned champion or how many more wins is this guy going to need, eight in a row, to finally get a title shot. As the last card, McGregor becomes the champion from Aldo.

Everyone's trying to get in the McGregor sweepstakes. And here we go. It's Ricardo Lamas. This is a historic fight. And it's UFC 199. And this is, of course, main evented by Bisping at last minute defeating Rockhold. And you got Faber, Dom Cruz, three. But this was prime placement in Los Angeles at the Forum.

199. I was there, Luke. You were there, correct? 199. I was watching live, but I was not there. Okay. Ariel had the backstage. There was a lot going on.

Brock Lesnar. Was that the issue there? Yeah. Ariel had the backstage. There was a lot going on. Brock Lesnar. Oh, there's not the issue there? Yeah. Brock Lesnar gets announced that night in the comeback with the video feature. But Luke, even though Bisping had his moment and that took the headlines, this fight had a moment that it's going to be hard to forget, especially since that Southern California crowd ate it up.

I want to fast forward to the final 10 seconds because that's the biggest takeaway from this fight. Max was in control. Even though Lamas' game, 10 years older than him, has a longer reach, Max had boxed very well, took some damage, but really is the commanding fighter. But with 10 seconds to go in round three, he says, meet me right here. He would say afterwards

that Lamas' body language said to him, I want to bang in the middle. Hey, Chewie, let's bang. Dude, this was such an incredible moment, as he mentioned. Last 10 seconds, points at the middle. and by the way Credit to Lamas. He was a good dance partner for that particular moment So Lamas the bully himself and they go swinging This was such a historic moment that they input it into the video game Subsequently where if you were playing max you could play more at the last at the end of the bout you could you know hit

I'm seeing one of the instructions on the on the whatever it, the joystick or whatever the fuck it's called, and the character would point to the mat and you two could slug it out there. This was the one that defined Max as not just a great fighter in this division. I want to point out something here too. This is when, a little bit before this, but you're really seeing it here now, Crystallize becoming a fan favorite. And he was already in control of this fight, so the fact that he was willing to do this, it reminds me of Eric Morales against Pacquiao

in their first fight when he went southpaw for no reason in the 12th round, but to just show you that I got balls, right? This was an I got balls moment for Max, but it came in a fight in which he controlled. He was winning. Lamas is a tough out. Dude, he was tuning Lamas up. He hit him with that head kick early in the first round. Absolutely. The jab was working as much as it

needed to. He stuffed, I think, all of Ricardo Lamas' takedowns. And then, but we should talk about it too. You know, he got those other wins like Will Chope. He would celebrate, as all fighters do when they win. But this was when he had some swag, dude. You're really beginning to see him like, that's why he pointed. Because yes, he was in control,

but he was so, he was such a believer in his own abilities at that moment. He was such a believer in what he could do, and because he was becoming a fan favorite. I think all those things coalesced into one moment, and then he pointed to the mat. Very, very historic. The people ask me, you know, in MMA terms, like, what's the biggest pop you've heard from the

crowd or craziness? You know, Bisping knocking out Rockhold was a big pop that same night. Obviously, I was there when Conor lost to Nate in the first one at 196. But, Luke, for some reason, that moment, that 10 seconds, the crowd went apeshit. That's as big of a pop as I've ever heard in the UFC. It was just a beautiful, organic, ballsy, mano-a-mano moment. And I'll never forget it. But that was also his eighth straight win.

And, Luke, that would be the fight where he would start to use Jose Aldo's name because in the post-fight interview afterwards, as corny as it was, looking back on it, the whole Jose Waldo, where's Jose Waldo, where's he at? Hashtag, you know, where's Jose Waldo? It was Matt saying, look, what the hell do you want me to do, Dana, on UFC? In fact, he yelled, you know, Dana, give me the bonus. You saw this. Like, eight straight wins.

He was starting to become the uncrowned champion. Now, Luke, 2016 is the area where Conor's going to go on to win two titles by the close of that year and then disappear for a while. But didn't they put that summer in the next card? UFC 200 in Las Vegas. They put the interim title

on the line for the rematch between Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo. Jose Aldo would dominate over five rounds, become the interim champion. So Max, instead of getting Jose or Conor, was supposed to get Frankie Edgar next. How did that make sense back then? I don't remember how that made sense back then,

but either way, it ended up being Anthony Pettis for the interim title. So it would be December 10, 2016, in Toronto to close the year. Talk about the 10th island, Luke, right? What number island is it? I think Vegas

is the 9th island. Okay. And I think either Toronto or Canada is the 10th island. So 10th island and you talk about a big moment.

So Anthony Pettis at this point, Luke, he had already had that couple fight losing streak where he lost the belt by knockout where he loses, who did he lose to

coming back off of there? I should probably get that right, Luke, okay? Anthony Showtime Pettis. Well, he lost to RDA. Loses to RDA for the title. Eddie Alvarez takes a split decision against him in the next fight, and then he loses the decision to Barbosa.

So it's three losses in a row. He rebounds against Charles Oliveira to submit him. And remember that moment in his featherweight debut. So it's Pettis who's already lost the title at lightweight. Weedy's box thing is all over. Three-fight losing skid. He did move down, though, and beat Charles Oliveira, although it seems like all the elite names were doing that

as Oliveira was on the end run of missing weight, getting criticized. So he goes into the Holloway fight as a replacement. Do you remember at UFC 206 feeling like Anthony Pettis had a chance here at featherweight? So this is when I was very high on Max, and I thought it was gonna be pretty competitive, but when Pettis missed weight,

and missed weight pretty badly, that was when, when you go back to Max... 148. That's right. That's when you go back to Max being a body puncher, you're like, I am. By the way, we already knew at this point that Max had a sick chin.

Yes. So he's got a good chin, good jab, good high output. Great takedown defense. Great takedown defense. It's like, dude, Pettis might be up against it on this one. For some reason, Luke, this was the final days of me still doubting Max Holloway. Still doubting? Wow.

Some guys you're just always gonna be late to the party on or there's something about them that you can't buy into. I thought Pettis looked so good against Oliveira, getting that submission and just looking physically dominant at this weight class, that I'm thinking, look, if Max can't finish Pettis, and if he's willing to get into a war with him, I've seen Anthony Pettis do sick shit.

He's going to be the bigger fighter with the power. Luke, obviously the three-pound missing weight had to play a factor, but it didn't matter, dude. Yeah, Pettis landed a strike or two to remind you that he's got power there, but, dude, this was a clinical Max Holloway. This was a brutal Max Holloway. And once he stopped him, you're like, he just kicked the shit out of a him, you're like, he just

kicked the shit out of a former champion. I mean, he just beat the shit out of this guy. Yeah, there was the issue about Anthony Pettis shaking out his hand after the first round. He hurt his right hand, which certainly changed him. He's going southpaw, but that just sped up him getting just surgically dismal. But this is my point. Like, Max is, I mean, how many great things can you say about Max? Another one is he's fucking durable, dude. He's durable. He's fighting consistently. He has a good chin. He doesn't seem to get injured. He puts it on Anthony Pettis for the

vast majority of this contest. And again, we go back to it. He ended up being a guy who targeted the head a lot, but this is another one of his, frankly, one of his most important wins. And what did it come from? Body work. Body work was the thing that did it for him. Max Holloway has made a career off of roasting the ribs of 145ers. Max is the interim featherweight champion. A month before, Conor McGregor had... By the way, last thing on this. Did you see the look on Pettis' face when Yves Levine

finally waved it? He just goes, like he was glad. He looked relieved. It was the kick to the body that set it up, and it was punches that finished it, but he got rid of it. But there almost was a... It was halfway wincing from pain, halfway relief that that shit was over. So a month before this fight, Conor McGregor had knocked out Eddie Alvarez to become the first simultaneous two division champion.

And he was more or less asked by UFC and Dana White to pick a division, pick a title. So Luke, Jose Aldo would be named the full champion, which of course opened up the interim opportunity. Now we're going to unify and it's not that much longer. It's right around the corner in 2017, June 3rd. It's UFC 212, and Max, as interim champion, has to go to Rio to fight the damn king of Rio. Luke, you look back and you rewatch these two Jose Aldo fights.

They're a lot more fun sometimes than I remember, but the end is the same for both of them. And nearly the same time frame, by the way. This is the best match. Now, these are two different fights with different themes we'll get into. Let's start on just the first one right here. I remember, again, this was the last time. No, actually, I'm not going to lie.

I doubted him in the Aldo rematch for some reason, too. Did you really? I don't know why. Why? Wow. Probably it was because of the legend of Jose. I'm thinking, okay, he'll go back and he'll figure it out. And I know he took the second fight as a last-minute opponent, too.

So there's other things that went on there. But, Luke, in this first one with Jose Aldo, in that first round, Aldo hits him with a big combination late, which may have stole the round. And it reminds you of Aldo those threat and his danger in his power But until that combination max is quick and he's long and he's given Jose issues He is giving Jose issues Well, the thing that was kind of interesting to me is I will go over this in the because I kind of want to talk

About the Aldo fights as a pair where folks may not appreciate this. I did this when I was When I did the Monday morning analyst max when he fought him the first time UFC 212 He circled to his own right the whole way. Because what's the key to fighting Aldo? You've got to turn him. If Aldo can face you and then plant his feet, he's going to be a hard guy to beat. But if you're constantly making Aldo turn, he can't set,

which would limit the amount of leg kicks, although obviously he gets some through no matter what. But that was big. In the rematch, he went the exact opposite direction. He forced him to turn, but not in any of the same way he did the first time around, which, by the way, speaks to Max. But to the point I want to raise here

in terms of this first fight, dude, this is Max. Yes, he got drilled with a big shot at the end of the first, but he and his jab and the amount of offense he can just, it just snowballs with him, does it not? Every little piece, it doesn't feel like it lands and then you start fresh. When Max is in a flow, everything feels like it's stacking on top of itself.

And I felt like by the beginning of the third, I thought Aldo was, I didn't think in trouble per se, but I thought that the fight was definitely headed in a bad direction for him. Dude, Aldo had got caught in a gas tank issue, I think, right there. Because he got caught up in the second round in some big moments of trying to go back and forth,

and he just couldn't deal with it. And there was a change at the end of round two that I think was the turning point. And I thought that... Let me take you back to the McGregor fight. McGregor's put it... Before that, before it became a wrestling match, McGregor was putting it on Max.

And one thing McGregor was doing was that old McGregor thing of quick left cross hit you and then put the hands up like, come on, you know what I mean? And kind of keep doing that. Max started doing that to Jose in the end of the second round and there was a specific sequence

where he landed big and then he stood there and was like, come on. That was the turning point of stopping to show respect for the elder, for the seemingly more dangerous King of Rio.

And from that moment on, I thought that turn was the turn in the rivalry between the two of them. And from that moment on, I thought that turn was the turn in the rivalry between the two of them, and certainly in that fight, because he just started to put it on Jose. But I still didn't think it would end how it ended, and how it ended twice in a row. With him kind of brutalizing Jose and getting the stoppage.

And also what's kind of crazy about it is, I mean, again, he had set it up with all the work he had done previously, but it was just a one-two, which Aldo slips and then comes back, and he threw the exact same thing right behind it, and it landed perfectly. And then from there, dude, it was a fucking onslaught, to the point where they probably could have called that one a little bit sooner.

But to your point, it's Jose Aldo, the king of Rio. You're in Rio. Max was going to have to beat him real badly to do it, and that is exactly what he did. Max is the champion. The win streak is 11. I remember being humbled to watch Aldo. I mean, it's not like I hadn't already seen him

get knocked out by Conor McGregor, but there is a fluke element to that, Luke. As much as it's an absolutely legitimate, they both landed the first, you know, major sequence between the two. They landed at the same time. Conor's was better. But to see Jose Aldo lose the belt

where a younger, you know, I guess faster, but maybe not. Not stronger. Not faster. Better timing. Yeah, more efficient, more proficient, more everything. Just piece him up to where he just didn't have an answer. By the way, this is also like one of the very best examples of Max's jabbing boxing flow state. Yes.

When he gets into that jabbing boxing flow state, he is punishing. So he raises his profile on even me, who's still not ready somehow at 11 fights in a row to fully give Max the go. Here's what I remember why I still entered that rematch with Aldo picking Jose. Because Jose Aldo completely abandoned

the leg strikes against Max in the first fight. Completely abandoned it. To the point where it started to say, is this a thing? Is Jose trying to conserve energy? What is going on? In interviews, it was the first question everyone's asked. Are you going to get back to the Aldo of old? There was a stat read in a previous Max fight

that the only people that sort of had success against Max at the start of the win streak were people that went to the legs. Lamas had a consistent leg strike attack. A couple others in this run where that was sort of the only area in Max who can control distance so well. We know he's quick and accurate, and he hits hard enough.

Sometimes the only success you can have against him, you can't take him down, no one really goes to the body at this point against him consistently. Sometimes the leg strikes are the only way. I'm thinking, okay, you get back to being the Jose Aldo of old, and you're particularly ready to dig in and go to war. This rematch could be different. Now, Luke, earlier I had said that Anthony Pettis

in that interim fight replaced Frankie Edgar. I had my timeline wrong. Pettis got the title shot on his own because of his name. He beat Charles Oliveira in his featherweight debut. This rematch, though, was supposed to be Frankie Edgar against the now full champion, undisputed Max Holloway. But instead, that same calendar year at the end of it, December 2nd, 2017, it's UFC 218 from Detroit,

and it's Jose Aldo who got the call when Frankie Edgar couldn't do it. So, Luke, in the second fight, we actually see Jose Aldo go to the legs a bit, but I just felt like there was a complete difference in this one, and maybe it goes back to my turning point where Max just stopped respecting Aldo, stopped bowing down to the glory of it.

It felt like a different fight from what Max was just like, I have no respect for you, I'm gonna walk you down. Now Jose Aldo did bite down on the mouthpiece, he did land some big shots in return, there was a couple moments where you're like. There's some big exchanges too, yeah. There were some moments, because this fight would end

at the tail end of the third round. Both of would end at the tail end of the third round. Both of them ended at the tail end of the third round. And like the Ortega fight, which would come after this, there were moments from Ortega and from Aldo in this rematch where I'm like, oh shit, he may have buzzed Max. If he could just put together a little bit more, like he's in this fight. But Max refused to ever not take that lead posture of,

I'm going to walk you down and stop you. Is this his finest performance? I mean, dude, the dismantling of Pettis was ridiculous. The fact that he went in there against now king again, Jose Aldo, and broke him down in the first fight was ridiculous. But this second fight, I think you'll understand, there's no excuses from Aldo. The leg attack was there.

He also was very willing to bite down on the mouthpiece and go for it and say, look, you're going to have to stop me to stop me here. And that's exactly what Max did. This is an amazing performance. I'll tell you, when the first bell rang and I watched Max start circling clockwise and the entire first fight he was going counterclockwise, I was like, you son of a bitch. Wow. That is super impressive. Because here's the thing.

You couldn't call the first one a fluke. You couldn't call that because he got dismantled But dude to beat Jose Aldo in back-to-back fights with not the same game plan But the same skill set basically just reapplied in a slightly different although in hugely impactful way was Magisterial magisterial and dude Yes Aldo actually landed much more in this fight than he did in the previous one Max to both of them had a higher output relative to the first one.

The first one, they were both a little bit more conservative. They let it hang out a little bit more in the second one. But dude, again, by the end of the second round, Jose Aldo was in bad shape. His face was getting marked up. And to the point you raised, yes, you'd seen McGregor do that. And you'd seen Aldo have some fights that got kind of close here or there. You had never seen anybody So I'm not gonna say easily, but it seemed that way

Put it on Jose Aldo the way max did max is really the first guy. Yes, of course Edgar ever sorry McGregor slept him but I'm just saying over the course of 15 minutes just fucking audited him He was just better and for max to be able to just take a game plan, slightly issue it, slightly change it, this is when I begin to call him a modular striker. Because if he needs to be right-handed, he can be. If he needs to be southpaw, he can be. If he needs to jab, if he needs to counterstrike, whatever he needs to do, he can just adjust to that and all of it works for him.

That was what I took from this performance. So Luke, we don't talk a lot, for some reason, about this card, UFC 218, December 2017 in Detroit. Here's the last two fights on the prelim card, that Yancy Medeiros-Cowboy-Olivera brawl, the Pohlfelder-Charles-Olivera brawl. Oh, my God. And here's your main card,

Tisha Torres against Michelle Watterson, Eddie Alvarez against Justin Gaethje, Henry Cejudo against Sergio Pettis, which was the fight of the year, Francis Ngannou against Overeem in the co-main. That was one of the worst KOs I've ever seen. And then Max Holloway and Aldo giving you three rounds of pure action.

Max has a pay-per-view main event in three consecutive times, gives you a finish of Pettis, two brutal finishes of Aldo. Everything has come together. This is win 12 of his 13 fight win streak. He's a fan favorite. He's now a commercial pound for pound guy.

I mean, this is really prime peak Max Holloway. Yeah, this was such a triumphant moment. To beat Jose Aldo not once but twice and to do it back to back when there can be no excuses and to your point, at the top of the card, entertaining. Again, we had said prior to this, even in the Cub Swanson fight, this was when Max was really becoming a fan favorite.

This was Max in full, right? Fans are loving him, delivering on what you want from a, if you're buying a pay-per-view, you're getting what you're paying for, and to beat the best featherweight of all time back-to-back by finish. And by the way, both times inside the fourth minute or so, right around the fourth minute of the third round.

Like, dude, he was just unstoppable. That was when you knew it was like, okay, Conor's doing whatever the fuck Conor's doing, but right now I know who the best 145-er is. It's Max Hollywood. And I don't look at that second win, which, again, only came because Edgar pulled out because of injury. Aldo was supposed to face Ricardo Lamas,

but he came in on short notice. I don't look at that as, oh, well, that was now old or washy or bruised Aldo. That was Aldo who came in with a body punch attack, too, in the second fight. The leg strikes. Luke, he was willing to go out on a shield, and Max made him. What? That is legendary shit.

And what is he at that point? This is 2017. That's five years ago almost. He's like, I mean, that's just ridiculous. He's 25. Luke, the final fight on this incredible 13-fight win streak. By the way, you're saying the win streak ends with Dustin Poirier, but technically at 145, it doesn't end until 2019.

Correct, in terms of his featherweight run, but this win streak, by the way, has already had names like Andre Feely, Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira, Jeremy Stephens, Ricardo Lamas, Pettis twice, Aldo, and now we have a red-hot Brian Ortega, and a dangerous Brian Ortega, and a guy who definitely looks like an unfinished product, more submission-heavy. He can get down in fights and have to pull out a dramatic third-round submission win a couple times, but that stoppage of Frankie Edgar,

a name who's still around and still relevant, that was brutal, Luke. Coming into this, I now was believing in the lore, the aura of Max full on. That was when he dropped Edgar with the elbow. Yep, but I'm also after that Edgar victory going, if Brian Ortega's striking is anywhere close

to some of those dramatic submission wins, I'm saying Max could beat him eight or nine out of ten times, but this fight may be those one or two times because Brian Ortega didn't do that. What I did not expect coming into this fight, December 8th, 2018. I had a very different view of this. UFC 231.

I came in here thinking, you know what? If he takes him lightly or if whatever, Brian Ortega can do something. It's going to be hard to take Max down, but let's see what happens. I didn't expect Brian Ortega to come in blood or in guts Mexican brawler style. Just coming straight on boxing. No ground

game. I am just going to let you tear my face off and that's going to wake me up and then I'm going to keep coming. Luke, I know we look back at this as one-sided and violent and vicious and that's all true, but Ortega was willing to die in there. Dude, this is a brutal fight in hindsight. UFC 231 Toronto, the main event, the pay-per-view.

This is, um, this fight was such a beating, I was worried about Ortega's career after this. I worried that the corner didn't do him any favors. I worried that it went on too long, because you mentioned Max. It's not like he has, I mean he's a 145er versus a heavyweight, but I'm trying to point out, it's not like he has like massive power at 145. But what he does have is this Chinese water torture, where it just, after two or three rounds,

you can see, look what it did to three rounds of DiG to Jose Aldo two times he just couldn't withstand it like there's just that there's this punishing relentlessness to Max's game and I thought through the first two rounds Ortega was getting eaten alive I will give Ortega a ton of credit No, I did he like by the way the fight was stopped at the end of the fourth round by virtue of the doctor coming In being like yeah, fuck this we're not gonna keep doing this anymore because his eye was such a disaster. But in the third round, he got back out there and took it to Max a little bit. Dude, there were moments in the second round,

but particularly the third round, I thought the momentum was changing. I thought I'm watching it happen because Ortega's face is a mess and you're wondering how long he can last, but then he comes right back in with combinations that are so flush and hard. Look, Max's chin.

Landing the elbows too off the clinch breaks. Max's next fight against Poirier in the rematch would need a lot of chin, and he showed it. He showed a lot of chin in these moments, because, Luke, as much as he was getting hit with bombs coming back from Ortega, he never physically showed Ortega that it's bothering him. Right? He just kept readjusting, resetting, and piecing him up.

And, look, Ortega's game plan certainly wasn't great. I like my criticisms. He was... It wasn't... I don't think it's a game plan. He was just, he was overmatched. For that stage of his career, he was overmatched. He basically was like, I'm not even going to the ground. I'm not even going to try to take him down. He did try to pull guard once along the fence line.

And he did try to take his back that one time. But Max kind of threw him off of it. But you're right, he didn't have a lot of opportunity. But, you know, this is Max who, again, is filled out. Better take down defense. I thought Ortega showed, I thought he actually won the third round. I thought he showed a ton of grit in that. But, dude, do you remember between the third and fourth round?

It was pretty scary. Max Holloway turns to the commentary booth and says, it ends here. It ends here. Now, it didn't end in the round, but it ended right afterwards because he stepped on the fucking gas. And I was legitimately worried for Ortega's career in the sport. I'm beaten coming in. 14-0.

It actually should have been 15, but he had the failed drug test on that one. I mean, he had had to pull out some fights late, but that run of beating Guida, Moicano, Swanson, and then brutalizing Edgar. I've got to say, this one went exactly as I thought it would. I knew Ortega was in trouble from the word go, because you point out the guys he beat like for example Guido and Moicano Especially more condom. O'connor was beating his ass for most of that fight He pulled rabbit was it was fool's gold man. It was like an Edgar was kind of on the down slope

That was the beginning of it. It was a solid win. It was a solid win It was a solid win But what I'm saying was it set him up for a fight that he wasn't ready for and here's why that's important because Max had Fights he wasn't ready for too. Yeah's why that's important, because Max had fights he wasn't ready for, too, but they happened earlier in his career. This was a five-round fight where the damage, everyone's like, oh, well, five rounds is always going to be more damage than a three-round. Right. But the difference is, it's kind of, the damage is like arithmetic on the graph through three, and then it's exponential through four and five, which is exactly what you saw here. The damage in the fourth round shut his face off, basically. Now, Luke, he had been on an incredible schedule of activity,

which you had mentioned. Finally, in 2016, Max only fought twice, but he had fought four times in 2015, four times in 2014, and had been very busy. He fought just twice in 2017, but there was a one-year gap between the second Aldo fight and that Ortega fight. And let's not forget about that one storyline

coming into the Ortega fight. And let's not forget about that one storyline coming into the Ortega fight. Max was supposed to fill in last minute for Tony Ferguson against Habib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223 in the April of 2018. That was the dolly through the window weekend. That was also Max's interview with Michael Bisping on Fox Sports where it's still unexplained, correct? It's still unexplained in terms of like what went wrong.

Why did he seem punchy in the interview? Was it hangover? I mean, not hangover, concussion. We still don't really know what happened, but we didn't even mention it. It's like it never happened. The concern coming in, maybe that's when I look back and I say, okay, Ortega was unbeaten. I've seen him win fights in which he's losing. He just brutalized Frankie Edgar, but I don't think we can forget about the, what the heck is Max going to look

like in this fight? Even though he's not even 30, he has been in a lot of wars, and that interview was so weird, they forced him out of the Habib fight. There were those questions. Luke, he answered every single question I think he had split with his management right after that, or right around that time. Fair point, there was a lot of questions, but like, dude,

if you, for me, for me, after those two Aldo fights, if you weren't a believer after that, I don't know what would, I was a huge believer in what he could do at that point. And to the point where, as big as I am on Volkanovski these days, I didn't see, I didn't know that I necessarily expected Max to, at that point, I didn't see anyone who could beat Max. It didn't exist to me. 13 fight win streak, top of the, you know, he's competing for the pound for pound top. He's a star, he's a proven commercial breadwinner, creator of pay-per-view buys and creator of action fights. So the promotion gives him a solid here, Luke.

This will be the legendary UFC 236. It's April 13th, 2019. It arguably features the best two consecutive action fights in terms of drama and UFC history, although you can make that same claim about UFC 196 with Tate versus Holm, followed by the drama in McGregor versus Diaz. Tate versus Holm was only good for the fifth round, though.

No, I mean, I get what you're saying, where each round before that was one-sided in the direction of that fighter. But we know what, you know, I was there in Atlanta. We know how legendary that night was because Kelvin Gastelum and Israel Asanya for the interim title, remember, two interim titles put on the line for this card,

and the main and co-main, both not necessarily justified, and there was a lot of talk coming in, you know, Kevin Aioli interviewed Dana and actually fought back at him, was like, you know, there's no need for an interim title here. Your champions are fine, they're ready, right? So Habib's a top lightweight, but he had just had what? Did he just have, he had Ferguson pull out

the year before at UFC 223. Khabib is, he couldn't fight during Ramadan, so they kind of, it seemed like they just kind of put another interim title down in this lightweight division for no reason. We know the middleweight one was kind of for no reason as well. Robert Whitaker had to pull out of the Kelvin Gastelum fight.

So this is where we're at though. Eventually when Dustin fought Khabib, it was the unification, so thereaker had to pull out of the Kelvin Gastelum fight. So this is where we're at, though. Eventually, when Dustin fought Habib, it was the unification. So there was something to that. It was the beginning of just sort of throwing it for marketing purposes, but Dana did validate himself by how hard these four guys fought. Now, we already know what happened in that co-main event, the five-round thriller that Adesanya pulled out. Dude, try to follow that.

Somehow these guys did. Max gets the call for the Dustin Poirier rematch. It's for the interim lightweight championship. So at this point, you're thinking, it's just gravy. He's won 13 in a row. He knocked out Aldo twice. He just defended it and stopped Ortega. And now he's going to move up and fight Poirier for the

second time. But Luke, this was... Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments?

Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, the credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. You can argue, what's the best version of Poirot we ever saw?

The guy who knocked out Conor McGregor twice most recently and went for the lightweight title? Or was it the guy leading into the Habib fight? Well, this was the final fight for Poirier leading into the Habib fight. All that 25 minutes Teddy Atlas saying to make everything right. To make life fair. To make life fair. I mean, this was prime peak Dustin Poirier. Yeah, so this is the story for me. You were there. I was watching on TV, but I remember thinking,

oh, dude, after what Max was doing, I thought Max was unstoppable. And I knew Dustin was good, but I thought heading into this one, I was like, you know what? Max is going to get his hand raised because Max just can't be beat. Motherfucking Dustin Poirier had something to say about that.

First of all, these two put on for five rounds. Just a brutal and high-paced entertainer. Now, it did have lulls. I'm not going to act like it it was gaudy word throughout, but to follow. The amount of times, this is what I really remember from it, but I mean obviously I rewatched it for this,

but just what sticks out to me, the amount of times Holloway got rocked and somehow found a way to keep the fight going or rock Poirier in the process. That's great. So here's where we're at. For Dustin Poirier, this was, Luke, a seven-fight stretch in which he beat Jim Miller, had the abrupt Alvarez fight,

but then submits Anthony Pettis, stops Justin Gaethje in a blood-and-guts war, stops Eddie Alvarez in the rematch in a blood-and-guts war, and now he's facing Holloway, and he is so sharp, but a Holloway left hook wobbles him midway through the first round, and you're like, oh, shit, what's going on here? Is Max going to do it? As soon as you sort of conditioned yourself to, Max may do this, because I had questions if he could win this, the size difference, all of that, Poirier started beating on him. And to close that first round, there were

three moments where Max was getting pieced up where I'm like, the size difference in terms of featherweight to lightweight, the power difference. He wasn't a power puncher at featherweight, although with the full body attack, he can get you out of there. And look what he did to Aldo. But Luke, I had legitimate questions after round one. Even though round two, he got banged around a little bit more, but not as badly. Do you remember feeling that after round one? Like this could be a completely lopsided bad idea matchup that if his chin is going to

keep him in this, he might take some serious damage. I was really worried. The only thing that I had in the back of my head, which sort of played out, actually played out a little bit, was I was like, okay, not that Max is a slow starter, but he's definitely much stronger in the third, fourth, fifth round than he is in the first and the second. So while that was bad, the first thing I was like,

oh, there's a power difference. Because Max would hit him, and yes, sometimes Poirier would kind of reel and react, but when Poirier hit him, Max would hit him and yes sometimes Poirier would kind of reel and react but when Poirier hit him Max would move there was a big difference in power that was hard to bite the hell down to not only get through five rounds but to have moments in round three dude he came back and kind of stole the round it wasn't this Dustin Poirier according to fight metric in the first round landed again this is just numeric so not qualitative but landed 54 to 30 strikes From Poirier to Holloway in round three. It was the exact opposite 53 to 33 for max

How the way he also numerically outstruck him in the fourth round? But Poirier did get a takedown the one the only one he got of eight attempts now This would have been in the fight of the year condition and can't Conversation of most years right but the fight before it was just incredible. I needed a vape when it was over. When you look back at this, it was 49-46 Poirier on all three. And in the fifth round, Max's face,

his nose got busted open, and he was a mess. And I was worried for him, dude. I was worried, too. I was worried that here's a guy on a 13-fight win streak who in his own division is the king. He's a pound-for-pound threat. He may give away the rest of his career in this one fight that might be unwinnable, right? It's gravy. It's a two-division champion. You is the king. He's a pound-for-pound threat. He may give away the rest of his career in this one fight that might be unwinnable, right?

It's gravy. It's a two-division champion. You get the stakes. You're immortal. Not only would he be an interim champion, but you get it. He'd still kind of be considered a two-division champion. But, Luke, do you look back at this as a close fight? Because the judges will tell you it's 4-1 on all three cards.

I look back at it as a close fight because every time, you know, Max had more success than people realize, even though let's give Poirier credit. He won this fight because he answered every success Max had with something bigger and heavier. That's right. But when you went back and rewatched it, is this a close fight to you? A competitive fight or just a high-paced all-action fight that was one-sided? Here's what I would say. I don't call it a close fight because in the end, you're right, 49-46, like the way you just tally it up, Dustin got the rounds.

But it was such a uniquely brutal fight. And it's not brutal because it was all one-way traffic. It's because both guys just dished it out on each other in extraordinary, like, you can't, like, here's one thing people take for granted. A lot of times if you go to, like, a regional MMA show, what you'll see is a guy who might have very good skills, but actually doesn't have a chin, or not much of one. And you kind of take that for granted when you watch UFC. You just think, oh, well, they may or may not have a good chin.

But what you don't really realize is the guys who are actually pretty good but can't take punishment, they get weeded out long before that. To do what these two did in terms of the absorption of damage, is legendary shit. I mean, the numbers here total, dude, Max Holloway landed 181 of 446 strikes. And Dustin Poirier, 178.

So numerically, actually, Max landed more, but we know the power difference was big. 178 of 381. Max never stopped trying to win, which is wild because, you know, in rounds one and two, he looked overmatched. He had a good round three. At the end of round four, he's getting brutalized. I mean, his nose is getting busted open.

The dude never stopped trying to figure it out. He never stopped. He kept coming. I mean, that is the definition of, even to his own detriment at times, to all-time great. Luke, that would snap the 13-fight win streak, and Poirier would go on to the Habib fight, although that would end. So, yeah, to be clear, Max is still featherweight champion at this point. He's still featherweight champion. This was at 155. He's still featherweight champion.

So we go to 2019. This was 2019. This was April. They were supposed... He was supposed to defend against Frankie Edgar at UFC 228, I believe. No, two-something here, Luke. They both got injured and had to pull out.

238, I think. Maybe. They were supposed to fight first at UFC 218, according to Wikipedia, then UFC 222. Each time, one of the two fighters had an injury. Now we finally get this fight at UFC 218, according to Wikipedia, then UFC 222, each time one of the two fighters had an injury. Now we finally get this fight at UFC 240, July 27th, 2019.

Luke, do you remember feeling like, for Frankie Edgar... I didn't think he had a prayer. That he even deserved the title opportunity at this point. No, I didn't think he had a prayer. And the reason why was, I think MK had started at this point, or right around this point. We had started in what, July of 2019? July of 2019, yeah. Yeah, so here's what I thought, which I think wound up proving true.

Frankie's a good striker, a very good striker. In fact, at his prime, he was excellent. But what really made his game dynamic was the introduction and the threat of takedowns. And so what you had seen in the Aldo fight at UFC 200 was, what happens to Frankie striking if you deny him takedowns? So he can't get him. Now he just has to strike with you. He is still quite good, but the dynamism of the trickery goes away completely.

And I was like, dude, Max's takedown defense at that point was awesome. Very good. And I was like, I don't think Frankie's going to take him down. If he can't take him down, I don't think he can win. Not a fight that in the end is going to be one of Max's more special ones. It was kind of ho-hum the whole way through, but Max was just better and there wasn't much Frankie could do to fix that. Frankie's last fight had come a year and a half before this against Cub Swanson. So Frankie had been knocked out brutally by Brian Ortega and we

were questioning if he was still around, if he's still viable. But in 2018, he did get a decision win over Cub Swanson. Do you remember that? I know we both came into this fight against Holloway thinking this is more of just a, hey, Edgar, here's a chance to become a two-division champion, fight for a title in your third weight class, now down at featherweight. Do you remember thinking the Cub Swanson win was enough that, I know we both just said we didn't give him much of a prayer, but was that career saving enough?

Or was this really gratuitous? Well, here's the thing about Frankie that's been kind of interesting, and Jose Aldo to a similar kind of extent. Like, even when they haven't been championship level fighters in the particular weight class, obviously Jose still had bantamweight, so was Frankie, you still knew they could beat other good guys.

So when he beat, career saving, I don't, yeah, maybe or something like that. But the read I got when he beat Swanson was, okay, I don't know if he could beat the top of the division, but he ain't a scrub. He can still do some things. And this was not for the third weight class. This was at featherweight.

He had already won the title at lightweight. He had already lost a featherweight title fight to Jose Aldo for the interim crown. This was him getting his sort of third and final chance here. Luke, it would go down as a five-round unanimous decision. The judges were split between 5-0, 4-1, and 3-2, but they were all for Holloway. If you remember, Edgar did, you know, he never stopped trying to win. Let's give him that credit.

He did have some decent flurries in rounds three, four, and five. He put the pressure on, but there was really nothing there. This was the final fight for Max as champion in terms of title defenses, his third overall. It's crazy to look back at Max Holloway's run, which we're doing here because the next fight would be fight one against Volkanovski. We're going to go through those Volkanovski fights

in a separate video. But Luke, this is sort of the end of this featherweight run. Only three title defenses, yet he had to build like a 10-fight win streak to even get an interim title shot. And that would become a 13-fight win streak overall even get an interim title shot, and that would become a 13-fight win streak overall. So it's kind of like Khabib, where no, he doesn't have the amount of title defenses, but you better believe

you're talking about him historically in this division and this conversation of the greatest. Also, the guy, I mean, again, Conor's win over Aldo is just one of the biggest wins in all of MMA. But to do what Max did twice, twice, including once in his hometown, that was

to me the guy who really ended the Aldo era. It wasn't so much Conor. Because again, Aldo comes back and beats Frankie, and who knows? Conor may have fought him twice and beat him twice. Who the hell knows? But I'm just saying that was the definitive end. And to be the definitive end

of the era of the best guy to ever do it in that weight class, that was pretty fucking big. Now, when Max Holloway beat Brian Ortega, let's not forget, it killed the idea from that Michael Bisping interview that something physically was wrong with him or the accumulated damage had made him old in his late 20s. To some degree, after losing that violent fight to Poirier, this was only three months after the

Poirier fight. Now, he didn't take damage against Edgar, but it was another reminder that Max has an ability to bounce back from anything. He's an iron man. And is just a... And that's part of what makes his... And by the way, this is also, I remember after the whole incident, he was like, I'm not sparring as much anymore. Yes. I'm gonna leave my damage in the fight, which is still...

This is 2019, right before the pandemic, but he would become a leader during the pandemic of not even sparring because he's doing the training camp over what, Zoom? Well, I don't know if I believe that. But the point being is, he definitely, definitely dialed back heavy and even light sparring in his camp to a large extent, just so he could preserve his body for these wars like that, which probably is wise, although it should be clear he's taken a shitload of damage over the course of his career.

Over the next two fights, over the next year, Max Holloway would twice lose to Alexander Volkanovsky. The second one in particular, UFC 251 disputed. Like we said, we're going to put out a bonus video breaking down round by round the scoring, all that, and sort of what we saw here. But Luke, he's no longer the featherweight champion, and then he loses to the champ a second time in disputed fashion. But his stock is still really high. I was arguing, man, maybe he should get a third shot right away against Volkanovski, as weird as this is, for him losing the first two. Instead, he gets a, I don't want to call it a showcase fight

because there's no showcase in facing a dangerous Calvin Cater, but it is the first UFC on ABC card. It's in the afternoon. It's January 16th, 2021 from Abu Dhabi. So we're fast-forwarding through the pandemic here. And this is arguably enough the best Max Holloway we've ever freaking seen. This was such a beating.

I was wondering if ABC regretted it, putting it on TV. I mean, listen to the- He would set so many records statistically. Listen to this number. I mean, you just can't believe this. I don't think I've ever seen something like this before. Significant strike totals.

He landed, landed 445 of an attempted 744. He almost threw 800 punches on this guy. 800. Dude, I thought Calvin Cater's career might have been over after that beating. That was historic. Remember, there were multiple times in the third and even fourth round where Cater was just, I thought he was going to go, and he somehow hung on.

By the way, to Cater's credit, even in the fifth, was throwing back, which is one of the reasons why his corner didn't stop. But his corner in Tyson Chartier, who's a great coach, and I like him very much, but there was certainly a lot of controversy about whether his corner should have saved him. Dude, Max fucked him up. He wasn't even 30 years old yet, Luke.

He's still 29 in this fight. And if you had any... And do you remember he was looking at the commentary booth being like, I'm the best boxer in MMA and then he would go back to like... It was virtuoso. This was a virtuoso performance. When you look up and down, I'm like, okay, the dismantling of Anthony Pettis may be the best I've ever seen. No, maybe the second Aldo fight I'll

consider was the best I've ever seen. No, Luke, it probably was this. And considering we'd already seen him go through the Bisping interview medical condition, go through the brutal loss to Dustin Poirier, rebound all those times, now lose twice to Volkanovski, which he didn't take a ton of physical damage in that fight, although there's a lot of leg strikes, but nothing changes the invincibility of him. Some guys, when they lose the title or they would lose to the same guy twice Even if it was disputed would start to feel inferior. Dude. He's just like in every interview He's just like yeah, man

You win some you lose some like like it is what it is was the famous saying it is what it is because he goes out here against cater who's dangerous as shit and I mean, it's like the it's like the Michael Jordan flu game or so I mean, this was this was the guy who pointed at the mat for the last 10 seconds for 25 minutes. That's who this guy was, completely in the zone the entire time. He had adjusted so well in the second Volkanovski fight in terms of changing his strategy. And even though Volkanovski rallied to close that fight out and ultimately win it, this is just a reminder that, okay, no title on him,

but he's still in the pound-for-pound top ten. He right now, after this caterer, I mean, he might be one of the, like his resume is so sick. He's one of those guys, Luke, who could have retired at his 30th birthday, and yet you'd still end up putting that resume up against him. Dude, listen to these numbers. So in the first round, this is bad enough, but this is the strike totals for Holloway to cater, 56 to 24.

That's bad. How about this one, 89 to 24. That's bad. How about this one 89 to 20? That's really fucking bad. How about 75 to 29 and then listen to this one? I literally don't know if I've ever seen this from a guy who didn't get stopped. This is what landed not even what he threw 141 to 34 Dude, I mean How did Calvin cater deal with that? And then in the last round, 84-26.

Yo, Max. It could have been stopped many times. Max, a nice. And you should say something about this. Calvin Cater is an excellent fighter. Excellent. That was not some chump he was fighting. And Max beat the brakes off of him.

The most recent fight for Yair Rodriguez would be against Yair Rodriguez, excuse me for that, to close 2021, November 13th. It's a UFC fight night main event. Luke, I thought the Cater win was enough. Like, hey, let's do it. Let's do Volkanovski. UFC decided not to. Do you remember those situations? I think he wasn't going to be able to, and also Max wanted to stay busy, I believe.

Well, Max took a stay busy against Yair Rodriguez. Luke, this would go down as a unanimous decision, but this sneaky great fight was the fight of the night. It was a fight of the year contender. And even though it's a unanimous decision, 49-46 and 48-47 twice for Max,

dude, this may have been the best performance of Yair Rodriguez's career because this fight, they both had huge moments in constant shifting of momentum and there was drama. Do you think there's anything hidden in this?

We don't know if Max is going to win or lose this third fight against Volkanovski. Let's say you find out you can see the future, and he loses that fight. And he loses in the most, you know, widest fashion of this rivalry. Will you look back at the Yair fight and say, man, maybe Max took more points? Because that's the thing. I came out of the Jair fight going, dude, Max Holloway is so great that even against the all-time, you know, the best performance I've ever seen from Rodriguez,

he's constantly figuring out ways to adjust and win. But I saw a lot of people on the old timeline going, oh, this is time catching up with Max. Because Jair landed huge strikes. He's an old 30. Let's be real about that. He's 30, which is quite young, but he's an old 30 because he started at 20 Which means his prime is gonna come sooner than the UFC at 20 or four fights before that correct started UFC at 20

What I mean to say is if you start earlier, you're gonna exit earlier and it's be clear about it, dude He's taken a lot a lot of damage. But here's what this fight represents to me and why max is so special Because what did Volkanovski tell me about his style when I met with him in New York? He goes, I have a style that just deals well with a lot of other styles. I can just apply it to a lot of different ways. Up until the Iyer fight, you know,

the par 8 was up a weight class. We don't really count that. It's relevant there too, but I'm talking about for 145ers. Max had a different style, of course, than Volkanovski, but had a similar kind of approach his boxing sort of centric style Was good enough for everyone in that division basically right or up until the point where he had Volkanovski But the point I'm trying to make is the key even in the Volkanovski fight It wasn't like he had to resort to something else to get the W

He kind of just kept it a striking affair for the majority of that contest Dude, he kind of I'm not gonna say he didn't have his moments on the feet. He obviously did. But answer me this question, BC. Does Max win that fight without the three takedowns that he got? I don't know that he does. This was me saying, yes, Max has gotten older. He's taken a lot of punishment. But Max,

he is fucking smart and he is well rounded to the point where, yes, before what was he doing? He was stuffing everyone's takedowns. How many times on MK have I talked about it? What skills do you have outside of your A game that are good enough to beat elite fighters? And the Volkanovski rematch, it was a lot. Max Holloway had the wrestling and the jiu-jitsu

to win this fight outside of his A game against a very game competitor. And that was, again, two fights removed from in the rematch with Volkanovski, making those changes to basically tell the chess master, here's another way to do it. You know, make some adjustments. Which makes me wonder by the way, if you went for the, no, Rodriguez is

not Volkanovski, but I do wonder, people have asked me what will be different in the third fight with Volkanovski, and we'll talk about this in a separate video. I do wonder if wrestling takedowns, clinching might be better, because you just stand apart from Volkanovski's stuff. Or, we have a new offensively inclined Volkanovski. It wasn't we have a new offensively inclined Volkanovski. It wasn't that he was never offensively inclined, but he seems to be going for the finish more

often and landing damage more often. So who knows what that third fight can look like. But Luke, as we look back at this incredible career, which is still ongoing, he's only 30 years old, do you have a turning point on those fights we just recapped? What stands out to you as the pivotal moments of the run of Max Holloway? Swanson, or Chope, Swanson, and I'm going to say Aldo, Pettis. Okay, so Chope, Swanson, Pettis, Aldo. Those are the big ones for me.

And then Cater, another one. Because I didn't think he was going to be done. I have the big ones for me. And then, Cater. Another one. Because I didn't think he was going to be done. To your point, those weren't. Whether you thought Max won or he didn't, and we're going to talk about this later, but the Volkanovski fights were not punishing. They were not draining in that sense. So I didn't think he was done,

but I was like, well, what's he going to really do at featherweight? And maybe time's going to pass him by. And then to beat two of the very best guys who were on their way up the ladder as thoroughly as he beat obviously Calvin Cater and then as Expertly I'll say as he was able to get the win against the area. Rodriguez a very tough Yeah, Rodriguez dude max is a very special fighter. I'm gonna say it one more time How many guys can you say at 30 years of age who are holding no belts, that you look around and you say that guy is a certified

first ballot Hall of Famer? That is Max Holloway. Love it. What a trilogy, what a historical implication for both Volkanovski and Max Holloway. It's a rare trilogy enough when one man won the first two and yet we're gonna do a third one. But what a career already if he never fights again.

Max Holloway is a day one-ish Hall of Famer. Indeed one of the greatest runs of that 13-fight win streak, and yet adversity has struck him in the last few years, and he's been able to bounce back. I am Brian Campbell. This is Luke Thomas, Morning Combat. Curse or no curse, we'll review resumes. There ain't one better, for the

most part, than Max Holloway. We'll see what happens in the fights. Saturday, July 2nd, UFC 276 from Las Vegas. Luke and I will be there. Allegedly. Allegedly. Thank you for your time. Two words. We out.