Throughout his incredible 31-fight UFC tenure, Max Holloway has never fought anyone of the grappling ilk of Charles Oliveira.
This coming Saturday, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira will clash in a rematch 11 years in the making with the BMF title on the line in the UFC 326 main event.
Ahead of their highly anticipated fight, ‘Do Bronx’ has claimed that he will ‘stand and bang’ with the BMF champion if he opts to point at the ground.
Despite that, it isn’t deemed as a path to victory for the Brazilian, who holds a clear advantage over Holloway when it comes to grappling.
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Dustin Poirier is the only fighter ever to attempt to submit Holloway
It was over 14 years ago when ‘Blessed’ Holloway made his debut in the premier MMA promotion against Dustin Poirier.
At just 20 years old, the Hawaiian got caught in a triangle armbar, suffering the first loss of his career at that point.
Following that loss, Holloway went on to compete 30 more times in the UFC, picking up wins over the likes of Jose Aldo, Yair Rodriguez, and Justin Gaethje just to name a few.
And throughout his storied career, fighting fighters of several styles, no one had even attempted to submit the slick boxer.
That was until he met ‘The Diamond’ Poirier again last July.
After dropping Holloway in the second round, in typical Poirier fashion, he attempted to jump a guillotine, trying to submit ‘Blessed’ for a second time. Fortunately for Holloway, he wriggled out.
But Holloway hasn’t eluded submissions by just fighting predominantly strikers, because he has fought his fair share of skilful grapplers.
In 2018 he defended his featherweight title against Brian Ortega, who earned his nickname of ‘T-City’, referring to his slick triangle choke.
Cole Miller, who he fought in 2015, scored 15 of his 21 wins by submission, but was unable to even threaten Holloway.
Dennis Bermudez, who he lost a split decision to in 2013, actually has a higher average submission attempts per 15 minutes than Ortega, with 1.1 over ‘T-City’s’ 0.9.
Fighters not attempting to submit Holloway is actually a credit of how good his defensive and dissuasive grappling is.
He will sneak in a kimura attempt or another form of limb lock to deter his opponent from actually attempting to take him down and advance positions on him.
Holloway hasn’t fought a grappler like Oliveira
Despite the fact that Holloway has fought an impressive group of BJJ practitioners, none of them have the aura and skill of ‘Do Bronx’ Oliveira.
Poirier became the first fighter to submit Michael Chandler and was only one of three fighters to hand Anthony Pettis a submission loss.
And that should give Oliveira tremendous confidence, as he is 5x the grappler that Poirier is.
‘Do Bronx’ averages 2.6 submission attempts per 15 minutes, which is over 1 more than Bermudez, who is the highest of Holloway’s other opponents.
The 36-year-old Brazilian will look to extend his record of the most submission wins in UFC history with 18 if he can dethrone the Hawaiian by becoming just the second fighter to even attempt to submit him.