Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) is minimizing the hype surrounding Ilia Topuria’s current run of dominance.
Holloway, who is set to face Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 318 this Saturday, suffered the first knockout loss of his career at the hands of Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) at UFC 308 last October.
Before that bout, Topuria had captured the 145-pound title by stopping Alexander Volkanovski. After defending the belt against Holloway, “El Matador” vacated the featherweight division and went on to knock out Charles Oliveira, claiming the UFC lightweight championship.
With three consecutive knockout wins over former champions, many fans are calling it one of the greatest streaks in UFC history. However, Holloway believes context matters — pointing to Oliveira’s age and Volkanovski’s prior knockout loss to Islam Makhachev as important factors when assessing Topuria’s legacy and place among the all-time greats.
“I mean, for sure, you know, you can't sleep on it, you know, but it's just tough, right?” Holloway said this week during an interview with Shakiel Mahjouri. “He has the names, right? He beat the names, and you can't deny that. But then, you know, when you look…It just sucks that, you know, with everything that's going on, when you look at that Volk fight, you know, with Volk coming off of what he did, that's kind of crazy.
“But people just look at the name. They're not looking at the record. They're just looking at, ‘oh, yeah, Alex was the champ, you know’, and then (he beat) me, and then Charles did what he did. What (run) was Charles on (before) him? One fight, one streak, you know. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's just moments, you know, and it's just names. It is one of the greatest names for sure that he beat in history, but the man is doing what he's supposed to do, you know? He's lining…people are lining…UFC are lining people up for him and he's just knocking them down, you know, so fair play to him, you know, he's going out there doing his job.”
