UFC 326 did not go according to plan for Max Holloway.
Despite entering his main event versus Charles Oliveira as a nearly 2-1 favorite, Holloway found very little success. Oliveira stormed out of the gate with hard calf kicks and heavy punches to set up the early takedown, and he never let up on the pressure. Holloway was routinely put into bad positions and forced on the defensive, meaning very little of the Hawaiian’s famous volume was ever even thrown.
For a vast majority of 25 minutes, Holloway
was getting controlled and beaten up. It’s one of the more one-sided losses in his entire professional career, but “Blessed” is not stressed. Reacting to the loss on social media, Holloway made no excuses and promised to get right back to work.
“The highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” Holloway wrote on X. “Saturday night was not my night. Sorry to all my family, friends and fans that I have let down. Shout out to Olivera for doing his thing. All class so nothing but love to him. No excuses from this side and there never will be. I’ve been here before I know the work I need to do to get back to where I wanna be. We are far from done. See you guys at the top.”
The “Do Bronxs” defeat disrupts Holloway’s previous pair of excellent 155-pound victories over Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier. At 34 years of age, there are still plenty of high-profile potential opponents for Holloway like Arman Tsarukyan or Paddy Pimblett. Unfortunately, the loss definitely hurts his position in the overall Lightweight title picture.
Hopefully, Holloway will get a chance to rebound in a few months.
