Who is Max Holloway? Get to know the fighting pride of Hawaii and the current UFC 'BMF' champion

07/03/2024 05:03 PM

Over his 12-year UFC career, Max Holloway has become one of the promotion’s biggest stars from reigning as the featherweight champion to recently becoming the ‘BMF’ in emphatic fashion.

Max ‘Blessed’ Holloway has been atop the UFC featherweight division for over ten years now, personifying durability and constantly putting on a show with every outing.

The 32-year-old won the undisputed featherweight title against Jose Aldo back in 2017 at UFC 212 and went on to defend it three times.

Despite that, Holloway fought most recently at UFC 300 this past April, stealing the show by knocking out Justin Gaethje in the final second of their five-round war, becoming the new UFC ‘BMF’ champion.

If anyone deserves that title, it’s ‘Blessed’ Holloway, having never been knocked down in his entire 12-year UFC career.

What age is Max Holloway?

Jerome Max Kelii Holloway was born December 4, 1991, in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

As of July 2024, he is 32 years old.

Max Holloway height, reach, and weight

The former featherweight champion stands at 5’11” and fights predominantly at 145lbs, however, his last fight came at 155lbs.

Although Holloway is one of the taller fighters in the 145lb division, he only boasts a reach of 69″ which is the same as the current champion, Ilia Topuria, with him only being 5’7″.

According to former UFC referee, John McCarthy, Holloway walks around at nearly 190lbs, however, that isn’t believed to be entirely accurate.

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Instagram and X/Twitter accounts

Max Holloway has a massive following on Instagram and you can join 4.3m others by finding him @blessedmma.

He often posts behind-the-scenes images of him in training as well as enjoying time with his family.

Holloway is also active on X, formerly Twitter, with 993k followers @BlessedMMA.

Who is Max Holloway’s wife

Max Holloway and his wife Alessa, have been married since 2022.

Alessa is a professional surfer from Makaha, Hawaii.

Max Holloway MMA record

Career stats

Max Holloway next fight

Holloway’s next fight is yet to be confirmed, however, it’s likely that he will fight current featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria, in the fall.

If ‘Blessed’ can beat ‘El Matador’ he will become a 2x featherweight champion, further cementing himself as the greatest featherweight fighter of all time.

Max Holloway vs Justin Gaethje

This past April at UFC 300, Holloway stepped up in weight for the first time since 2019, to take on ‘The Highlight’ Justin Gaethje for the BMF title.

Going into the fight, the 32-year-old wasn’t given much of a chance considering the weight difference and the way his last lightweight fight against Dustin Poirier went.

The fight was being highlighted as potentially one of the best fights ever before the two had even stepped into the cage.

Despite the preconceptions of Holloway’s chances in this fight, he came out and out on a tremendous performance, dominating the BMF champion for the majority of the five-round fight.

With just 10 seconds left of the fight, instead of cruising to a unanimous decision victory, Holloway pointed at the center of the cage and began to throw down with Gaethje, giving him one last chance to win the fight.

Then followed one of the most iconic moments in UFC history and one of the greatest knockouts in the promotion’s history.

Max Holloway vs Conor McGregor

In 2013, Holloway shared the Octagon with Conor McGregor, before the Irishman’s notoriety and popularity.

Only 21 years old at the time, Holloway was looking to bounce back from a loss to Denis Bermudez, whereas McGregor was fighting in only his second UFC fight.

At this point in his career, ‘Blessed’ was still figuring out his style, and fought completely differently to how he now fights. McGregor went on to win a unanimous decision after a pretty dominant showing.

Despite that, with both fighters now where they are in their careers, fans continue to call for a rematch of this fight.

Max Holloway vs Calvin Kattar

After losing his title fight rematch against Alexander Volkanovski in 2020, Holloway took a fight against featherweight contender, Calvin Kattar. The performance that Holloway put on had fans once again talking about him as one of the best in the world.

The most notable moment from the fight happened in round five when Holloway landed a sensational combo and proceeded to look at the commentary team and shouted, “I’m the best boxer in the UFC baby!” as he continued to evade strikes from Kattar.

Max Holloway vs Arnold Allen

After losing in his trilogy fight against Alexander Volkanovski, Holloway went back to the drawing board and was presented with another contender in Arnold Allen. The Brit was on a dominant run at featherweight and was given the biggest fight of his career thus far against the former champion, Holloway.

‘Blessed’ once again cleared out another contender after a close five-round fight in Kansas City.

Max Holloway vs Dustin Poirier

After a dominant run as champion at 145lbs, Holloway decided to move up to lightweight in 2019 to take on Dustin Poirier for the interim title. The two had already fought each other back in 2012 when they were both early in their UFC careers.

Although Holloway was unable to pick up the interim title, he and Poirier put on Fight of the Night. Following his loss, he moved back down to defend his featherweight title against Frankie Edgar.

Max Holloway vs Alexander Volkanovski

After a quick rise to the top of the 145lb division, Alexander Volkanovski was given a title shot against Max Holloway at UFC 245 in December 2019.

Volkanovski had beaten the likes of Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo before he was afforded the title shot, making for an intriguing matchup. ‘The Great’ went on to dominate ‘Blessed’, putting an end to his dominant title run and sparking the beginning of their great rivalry.

Rematch at UFC 251

Because of his dominance as a champion, Holloway was afforded an immediate rematch which took place in July 202 at UFC 251.

Their second fight played out much closer than their first, resulting in a split decision. This caused controversy in the MMA world as the majority of the fanbase and big personalities in the sport scored the fight in favor of Holloway.

UFC president, Dana White, also scored the fight in favor of the former champion.

Volkanovski vs Holloway 3

Following the controversy of their rematch, Holloway went on to beat both Yair Rodriguez and Calvin Kattar, earning himself a trilogy fight with Volkanovski at UFC 276, in July 2022.

There was no controversy around their third fight as Volkanovski utterly dominated ‘Blessed’ and put a stamp on their rivalry, finishing their trilogy 3-0 up.

Jose Aldo vs Max Holloway

After winning the interim title against Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 in 2016, Holloway earned himself a chance at unifying the featherweight title against Jose Aldo at UFC 212.

The event took place at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Aldo’s home City.

Holloway pulled off the upset in round three, finishing ‘The King of Rio’.

The rematch at UFC 218

Six months later, the two rematched at UFC 218 in Detroit, Michigan. Holloway was originally scheduled to fight Frankie Edgar in the main event, but ‘The Answer’ withdrew a month out from the event due to injury.

Again, Holloway finished the fight in round three, once again cementing himself as the greatest featherweight of all time.

The Korean Zombie vs Max Holloway

Following his win over ‘Almighty’ Allen in April last year, Holloway was booked to fight Chan Sung Jung in what was ‘The Korean Zombie’s’ retirement fight in Singapore.

The fight booking largely came as a surprise as ‘The Korean Zombie’ was coming off a devastating loss to Alexander Volkanovski. Instead of being given a favorable matchup in his retirement fight, he was matched with Holloway.

Despite the first few rounds playing out relatively comfortably for ‘Blessed’, in round three he starched ‘The Korean Zombie’ with a picture-perfect overhand right.

Max Holloway merch

Max Holloway has his own online merch store where he sells things from graphic t-shirts to accessories.

You can even buy an autographed shortboard surfboard on the site.

Max Holloway back tattoo

Holloway’s back tattoo represents an Angel wing on one side and a Devil wing on the other side, and the 32-year-old claims it represents the Ying and Yang.

Hilariously, Holloway has been mistaken for Tony Ferguson in the past as they have similar back tattoos.