As a former UFC Featherweight World Champion, Max Holloway has already proven his elite skills time and time again, although he’s never really been known for his BJJ. That doesn’t mean that he hasn’t spent countless hours on the mats honing his grappling skills over the years and he recently announced on his official Instagram account that he’s now been rewarded for his efforts with the final colored belt promotion in the art. This comes after over a decade competing professionally in MMA and Holloway has already managed to defeat plenty of high-level BJJ black belts in the octagon like Brian Ortega, Charles Oliveira, and Anthony Pettis.
Holloway has already had a storied career despite not even hitting 30 yet, although he’s hit upon tough times of late, going 2-3 over his last five fights. Of course, the first of those losses was when he decided to move up in weight to challenge for the UFC Interim Lightweight title against Dustin Poirier, followed by a successful title defense back at Featherweight against the legendary Frankie Edgar. He then lost back-to-back title fights with Alexander Volkanovski, although the fights were so close that many fans believe that Holloway won either one or both of them. Most recently, he bounced back by defeating the streaking Calvin Kattar in order to defend his position at the top of the Featherweight rankings.
Holloway wins the vast majority of his fights through a high-volume striking game that tends to result in clear decision wins or late finishes when fighters succumb to the accumulation of damage. While Max Holloway may not be the best example of elite BJJ in MMA, he’s shown on more than one occasion that he’s no slouch on the ground and it’ll be interesting to see if he starts to utilize this more to add more another layer to his game.
