Max Holloway has just revealed that he actually wants to submit Charles Oliveira in their upcoming BMF title-fight at UFC 326 on March 7th, 2026. It’s a bold choice to say the least, and it definitely goes against the logical gameplan that Holloway should have coming into the fight. Holloway has been a brown belt in BJJ for several years now and he’s shown some solid Jiu-Jitsu throughout his career, but he’s undeniably more of a striker. High-volume striking and relentless pace is how Holloway usually wins and throughout his 35 professional fights, he’s only ever submitted two opponents; Cub Swanson and Andre Fili with guillotine chokes.
Although going to the ground isn’t normally going to be Holloway’s path to success, there isn’t anyone else in the world more dangerous there than Oliveira. Not only is he a 4th degree BJJ black belt with plenty of experience competing in the sport prior to his MMA career, but he’s also proven that his grappling works better in MMA than anyone else’s. Oliveira has the most submission finished in UFC history and the most finishes overall thanks to a handful of knockout and TKO wins too. He also holds the record for the most ‘Performance of the Night’ bonuses too, showing that he’s entertaining as well as dominant.
Oliveira has beaten many of the best fighters in the featherweight and lightweight divisions over the last decade and most of the time it’s his grappling that gets the job done. He’ll be coming into this fight with something to prove too, as he’s looking to avenge his injury loss to Holloway from back in 2015. Now the BMF title is on the line too, and that’s actually what’s motivating Holloway to try to beat Oliveira at his own game:
“My coaches probably gonna kill me when they see this and hear me saying this, A BMF thing to do in this fight would be to submit the submission artist… At the end of the day never say never. Who’s to say what happens. That’s a pretty BMF moment to submit a submission artist.”
The full interview with Max Holloway where he talks about the plan to submit Charles Oliveira At UFC 326 was uploaded to the official Twitter account of Home Of Fight:
