Max Holloway: The Blessing of Time

Recognizing how different the path of a combat sports career is from those of more traditional sports, it's perhaps strange that we expect so much from MMA prospects so soon. Of course there's the occasional superstar like Jon Jones who just goes up-and-up from day one. But there's also plenty, like Georges St. Pierre, who get their momentum going and have their hype train derailed by what seems like a crushing defeat, only to come back even better. And then there are those like Anderson Silva and Mark Hunt who put together their best work in the twilight of what would be considered their athletic prime.

Part of that is due to the youth of MMA, but mostly it is due to the fact that athleticism and solid technique will only carry a competitor so far in this game. Finding the right techniques for the job is far, far more important. Fight IQ is a very real thing and it is why this sport—at the highest levels—is more akin to chess than it is to sprinting or football.

Max Holloway and Conor McGregor are to many fans the story of the moment in the featherweight division. Both hot up-and-comers, but where McGregor has brought home the bacon in each performance, Holloway has taken some knocks to get to where he is. But the crucial thing to remember about Holloway and any other young up-and-comer who has been 'exposed' is that a fighter is not in a solid state. He changes day-to-day as he practices some things and others drop away, his physical attributes fluctuate, and his emotional state changes. The thinking that because a fighter picks up his first loss he has been "exposed" is in part correct and in part erroneous.

Yes, something in him or his game has been exposed. A habit, a flaw in preparation, or drawing a blank when a certain question is asked of him by the opponent. No, he as a whole has not been shown to be all fluff.

If you are unfamiliar with Holloway, you have been missing out. I've had my eye on him for a while—mostly since his memorable scrap with Dennis Bermudez where I felt he was stiffed out of a decision. What we see in Holloway is a rough diamond. Watch this highlight and see if you can guess what I'm going to praise him for.

Where to begin? Let's start with that gorgeous boxing. From the counter right hands, to the long right hooks around the lead elbow, to the left uppercut. The guy just oozes boxing class when he stays on point mentally and doesn't go swinging for knockouts. Did you catch the 1-3-2? Edwin Haislet was harping on about it in the forties, but it still confounds fighters today.

Then there's the body-work. You can complain about the quality of striking in MMA overall for days, but body-work has to be the most consistently underestimated factor of the game. Yes, it's spectacular when someone goes to the body once and winds their man, but if they then never go to it again, it shows a lack of that all important fight IQ. It is far, far more impressive to see a man commit to body-work, tapping in a handful a round and watching his opponent's guard wilt like the basil plant in my kitchen.

When Holloway is on point and his head is in the right place, he's body-hooking off the jab, and using high kicks to raise the opponent's guard along the fence before banging out a salvo of hooks to the floating ribs and kidneys.

Holloway's problem is and always has been that he's obsessed with being one of those highlight reel fighters. A highlight reel of body shots is something I could watch all day, but Max wants the flying knee knockouts. So instead of methodically building the combinations and sinking in the body shots—tap, tap, thud—Holloway starts sprinting into flying knees. And the worst part is that he's had just enough success with his jumping knees and back kicks to justify, in his mind at least, throwing them constantly.

A change has seemingly come over Holloway recently. He still loses his cool sometimes, and he often forgets his body-work, but he has become a true switch hitter. The switch hitter is the rarest of things in combat sports—even the guys who can do a bit from both stances aren't true switch hitters. A real switch hitter has to be able to hide his stance changes in motion.

Before, Holloway would sometimes be orthodox, and sometimes be southpaw. Against McGregor, he fought largely orthodox which you will remember led to him being held at bay with low line side kicks to the lead knee and left him on the end of left straights and jumping left knees or kicks. In his most recent outing, against the very accomplished and dangerous Cub Swanson, Holloway deceived Swanson by constantly moving from stance to stance, always ready to hook in a short counter. In fact, the one back kick which worked against Swanson was set up and hidden in the switching of stance—going from the front leg to the kicking leg in a small lateral movement.

This weekend, Max Holloway is "Blessed" with another shot at the big time as he meets fellow surging contender, Charles Oliveira. Where Oliveira is excellent with all manner of front chokes—be they anaconda, D'arce, Peruvian necktie, guillotine or hybrid—and his knees and crossface elbows in the clinch, his striking game is somewhat more one note, relying mainly on kicks and pairs of punches as so many Brazilian Muay Thai stylists do. If Holloway were to beat Oliveira, the possibility of a title fight might be a very real one. Certainly he will at least be matched against one of the top tier featherweights like Chad Mendes or Frankie Edgar.

Will it be Max Holloway, super slick boxer and switch hitter will turn up, or Max Holloway, ineffectual head hunter? Well, that's up to Max.