FightPost MMA Fighter of the Week: Max Holloway
By Kieran Cobley
Max “Blessed” Holloway takes this weeks MMA Fighter of the Week honours following his decisive TKO victory over Brian Ortega at UFC 231.
The featherweight title clash looked to be a possible fight of the year contender, and Holloway’s biggest challenge in years, as he went up against the undefeated “T-City”, who has a habit of coming from behind in fights to finish them in spectacular fashion.
Holloway started the fight aggressively, trying to clip Ortega with his superior striking, but “T-City” showed great heart to stay on the feet and exchange strikes.
This continued through the second round, and the third round, with Holloway landing more and more strikes, with vicious power.. and it was clear to see that Ortega’s nose had been damaged in some way with blood dripping out of it. It is worth noting though that Ortega was landing strikes as well, but his own striking couldn’t compete with he level of Holloway’s striking.
The fourth round saw Ortega getting lit up like a Christmas tree with Holloway almost finishing the fight a couple of times during the round. Even when the fight went to the ground, Holloway was still in charge despite being in Ortega’s realm.
At the end of the fourth round, the fight was stopped by the doctor, as Ortega’s nose and thumb had been broken, and Holloway was able to celebrate on Joe Rogan and Jon Anik’s commentary desk, as he cemented his place as one of the best, if not the best, featherweight of all time.
It is unclear who will be next for Holloway, but fans are definitely up for him fighting Zabit Magomedsharipov before inevitably moving up to lightweight.
Honourable mentions this week go to Jack Shore, who became the Cage Warriors bantamweight champion as he defeated Mike Ekundayo at his own game, finishing the fight with ground and pound, and went 10-0 in the process, and Dean Trueman, who became the Cage Warriors featherweight champion after finishing Aiden Lee.
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