Former featherweight champ Max Holloway recently did an interview with Phil Murphy of ESPN, where he discussed how training camp went for his fight against Calvin Kattar at UFC on ABC 1 this Saturday.
Prior to his last fight which was a rematch against Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight title, it was well documented that due to Hawaii’s strict COVID-19 quarantine mandates, the only training Holloway had with his coaches was through Zoom for that training camp.
For this training camp, Holloway did confirm that he had in person training sessions with his coaches.
“The last fight was kind of tough,” Holloway said. “Like I said, I really couldn’t see my coaches until we got to the airport, and a bunch of stuff we was doing off of Zoom. At the end of the day, Hawaii got to open up a little bit. We got a little bit more stuff. I got to see my coaches. I got to do a little more training in person with my coaches instead of doing video calls,” adding,” I think we did a pretty good job of rolling with the punches in the last one. We’ll see how we do in this upcoming one.”
Holloway says he may show a part of his game that fans haven’t seen in a while, stating that he loves the grappling aspect of mixed martial arts as well. In typical flashy Holloway fashion, he even hinted at the chance for some flying submissions in the near future.
“One thing that people don’t really see, people keep talking about my striking – this and that, but my game has been evolving a lot,” Holloway said. “I mean just wait till you guys get to see my jiu jitsu. I love jiu jitsu. I do a lot of gi jiu jitsu. So, I love rolling. I love grappling. Just wait till we open that part of the game up, it’s gonna be a whole new ball game,” adding, “Maybe you’ll see a flying submission here in the near future.”
Holloway currently only has two submission victories on his record, both coming by way of guillotine choke. He is currently trained by Gracie jiu jitsu black belt, Rylan Lizares, who earned his black belt from jiu jitsu legend, Pedro Sauer.
Lizares had an extensive competitive grappling career spanning from 1997 to 2012, where he won numerous state and national titles along the way. He has served as a cornerman for several current and former UFC fighters such as Yancy Medeiros, Russell Doane, Louis Smolka, and more.
Holloway (21-6 MMA, 17-6 UFC) is set to face off against rising featherweight contender Calvin Kattar (22-4 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in a five round main event for UFC on ABC 1 this Saturday, January 16, at the newly built Etihad Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The winner of this fight could very well find themselves up next for a title shot against the champ, Alexander Volkanovski.
Source: Youtube.com
