Did Max Holloway really train over Zoom, without any training partners, or in-person coaching for this weekends rematch against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 251?
If you ask Holloway, that’s exactly what he did for this fight.
But whether or not he’s telling the truth? That depends on who you ask.
Last week, Holloway made headlines during an interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, when he said that he had trained exclusively over Zoom, without any training partners, for UFC 251. In addition, he added that the first time he saw his coaches was when they met up at the airport in Hawaii, to leave for Las Vegas, about two weeks before the fight.
Former light heavyweight and heavyweight champ, Daniel ‘DC’ Cormier, who happens to be close friends with Holloway, told Helwani during their weekly show, Ariel and DC, that he didn’t believe Holloway’s claims of how he trained for the rematch against Volkanovski.
On Tuesday, during media day for the Holloway vs. Vokanovski rematch, Volkanovski gave his take on Max’s alleged training methods ahead of their fight.
“I don’t know where he’s going with all this, you know. Is he already making excuses for when I (win)? He’s been training, everyone in here knows he’s had contact training, and again I don’t know the reasons why he’s saying that, but I’m prepared to fight a fully prepared Max,” said Volkanovski.
“(Your gonna train like that for) a rematch? To try to win your belt back? Doesn’t really make much sense. I beat you when you were fully prepared, full camp, and now you’re gonna do a camp just playing Call of Duty, and not doing any training or any contact training? You know what I mean? That just doesn’t make sense. What is he all of a sudden just fighting for the money? I don’t believe that, I still think he wants to beat me. He wants to get that belt back, and to do that he needs training partners, and I still don’t think it’s gonna be enough,” said Volkanovski.
Holloway Vs. Volkanovski 2 will be the co main event for UFC 251, and it will be one of three title fights that night. Also on the card, there will be Jose Aldo vs. Petr Yan for the bantamweight title, and in the main event, Jorge Masvidal, who is stepping up on six days notice, looks to take on the champ, Kamaru Usman, in a welterweight title bout.
