Max Holloway didn’t have an ideal camp ahead of his title fight.
Holloway meets Alexander Volkanovski in a rematch for the featherweight title in the new UFC 251 headliner on July 11 taking place in Abu Dhabi’s Fight Island.
It will be the first time he competes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and because of the current global situation, “Blessed” couldn’t train properly in his native Hawaii which implemented strict stay-at-home orders.
Holloway Didn’t Spar For This Camp
Not wanting to take the risk of getting his coaches arrested for violating the order, Holloway instead to decided to train at home and get coaching via Zoom calls.
As a result, he didn’t spar for this camp and even revealed he didn’t meet his coaches in person until they all met in Las Vegas for the chartered flight heading to Abu Dhabi.
“Everything we were doing was through Zoom,” Holloway told Ariel Helwani on Friday. “If you got caught at the gym because there was a lockdown and stuff, we could all get arrested. It was a little bit more of a sacrifice on my end. If I went there, they see my butt out there, they’ll be like, ‘yeah, let’s get this guy,’ make a point and put fear into other people. We did it smart, did what we could. I stayed home, did a bunch of training at home.
“… Solo [no training partners]. … No sparring at all. I actually kind of like it. First time not sparring. I was a big believer in sparring. … This camp actually opened my eyes like man, I don’t even have to spar that much even more. I’m at a point in my career where I know how to punch, I know how to kick, I know how to apply it so I sparred.”
"Wait a second… The first time you saw your coaches was at the airport?!"@BlessedMMA blew @arielhelwani's mind by explaining his Zoom training for #UFC251, which included no sparring 🤯 pic.twitter.com/LE4l6gSXS4
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 4, 2020
While Holloway is trying to make the best of a not-so-ideal situation as he claimed it was still one of his better training camps, it remains to be seen if it will benefit him in his rematch with Volkanovski.
We’ll just have to see how he performs next week.
