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Check out the key facts, figures and footnotes for UFC 251, which is features Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo for the vacant bantamweight title.
Check out the key facts, figures and footnotes for UFC 251, which is features Petr Yan vs. Jose Aldo for the vacant bantamweight title.
Check out the key facts, figures and footnotes for UFC 251, which is headlined by Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal.
Check out the key facts, figures and footnotes for UFC 251, which is headlined by Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal.
Max Holloway’s victory over Brian Ortega was one of the finest moments in a career filled with highlights.
[autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] returns to action on Saturday night, when he attempts to regain the UFC featherweight title he lost to Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 245.
They say fighters are mostly judged off their most recent performance, and if that’s the case, “Blessed” is getting shortchanged.
Prior to the Volkanovski loss, Holloway went on a tremendous run as featherweight champion, to the point many considered him near the top of the sport’s pound for pound rankings.
And you only have to back to UFC 231 to remember how great Hawaii’s finest can be when he’s firing at all cylinders. Holloway’s title defense against Brian Ortega was highly anticipated. Ortega went into the bout undefeated, and the machup felt like one of those once-in-a-generation fights.
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But Holloway had other plans. Ortega proved to be ridiculously tough, but he got to prove this because Holloway put on a clinic in the octagon. Ortega wouldn’t quit, but eventually, the doctors in Toronto ended it for him, earning Holloway a TKO victory at the 5:00 mark of the fourth round.
Now, as we get set for the Volkanovski-Holloway rematch at UFC 251, which goes down on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi on Saturday, you can take a look back at one of his finest nights in the cage in the video above.
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UFC 251 takes place Saturday, and the promotion’s popular “Embedded” series returns to get you ready for fight night.
The UFC returns after one-week break on Saturday with UFC 251, and the promotion’s popular “Embedded” series is back to help build the excitement ahead of the action.
UFC 251 takes place in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
After the late addition of [autotag]Kamaru Usman[/autotag] (16-1 MMA, 11-0 UFC) vs. [autotag]Jorge Masvidal[/autotag] (35-13 MMA, 12-6 UFC) for the welterweight on late notice, three title fights are official with [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] (21-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) vs. [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] (21-5 MMA, 17-5 UFC) set to rematch for the featherweight belt in the co-main event and [autotag]Jose Aldo[/autotag] (28-6 MMA, 10-5 UFC) vs. [autotag]Petr Yan[/autotag] (14-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) for the vacant bantamweight strap on the card, too.
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The second episode of “Embedded” follows the big-name stars at the top of the card as they settle into the “safe zone” set up in Abu Dhabi around the “Fight Island” events and begin to shift focus to fight night. Here’s the UFC’s description:
Champ Alexander Volkanovski adjusts his training schedule to the time zone. Jessica Andrade, Rose Namajunas, and Max Holloway change up their camps for the COVID era. Headliner Jorge Masvidal pairs a Versace robe with a Trump mask.
Catch up on previous episodes:
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With the Hawaiian unemployment soaring during the COVID-19 pandemic, Max Holloway is doing his part to help out.
ABU DHABI – Following in the footsteps of [autotag]Khabib Nurmagomedov[/autotag] and [autotag]Dustin Poirier[/autotag], former UFC featherweight champion [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] will auction off his UFC 251 fight kit for charity after Saturday’s fight.
In a public service announcement posted Tuesday on Twitter, Holloway announced his decision to donate his kit to Hawaii Foodbank in an effort to raise money for those affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a pre-fight media day held Tuesday, Holloway elaborated on the donation. He praised Nurmagomedov and Poirier’s past efforts and cited high Hawaiian unemployment rates as his motivation to help those in need.
“Shout out to my brothers Khabib and Dustin,” Holloway told MMA Junkie. “When they came here in September and did their thing, that really motivated me, especially with all the pandemic and stuff. Me and my team sat down, and like 95 percent of our work now is trying to help charity and charity work. What we’re gonna do is, my whole fight kit, I’m gonna be auctioning it off. And every single penny I make off of it we’re gonna donate to the (Hawaii Foodbank).
“The unemployment rate right now in Hawaii is at, like, 40 percent – an all-time high. I’m getting food on my table, so if I can give back to my people and try to get food on their table, and this is the way to do it, this is the way we gotta go.”
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On the eve of his UFC on ESPN 12 main event victory against Dan Hooker, Poirier was awarded the UFC’s inaugural “Forrest Griffin Community Award” for his charitable efforts with “The Good Fight Foundation.” Poirier’s actions, in particular, touched his former opponent Holloway.
“(Poirier’s) been inspiring me a lot in a lot of ways when he’s doing stuff outside of fighting,” Holloway said. “We’re more than athletes. We’re trying to be bigger than the sport, and this is one of the things that I know I can help myself and help my people.”
Check out the announcement video below:
Caught up with @BlessedMMA ahead of his featherweight title rematch at #UFCFightIsland on Sunday.
Inspired by @DustinPoirier in Abu Dhabi last September, he’ll auction his #UFC251 kit for charity back home. Nice touch.pic.twitter.com/6oN5bn2CV5
— John McAuley (@_JMcAuley) July 7, 2020
UFC 251 takes place Saturday at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
Alexander Volkanovski doubts Max Holloway’s claim that he trained for their UFC 251 rematch on Zoom and says it’s a mistake if he did.
UFC featherweight champion [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] isn’t sure how truthful Max Holloway is being in the build-up to their title rematch.
Volkanovski takes on Holloway in the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 251 in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The event is the first card of the UFC’s “Fight Island” series, which was designed to give international fighters a place to compete while facing COVID-19 travel bans to the U.S.
During the pandemic, fighters have been forced to alter their training methods to not only be coronavirus free and be eligible to fight, but also to comply with government stay-at-home orders in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Holloway made recent headlines when stating in numerous interviews that his training camp was done at home through video conferencing his coach on Zoom.
Although many people working from home have been forced to resort to softwares such as Zoom, Volkanovski (21-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) doesn’t think a fighter can fully prepare for a world-class fight through virtual means. He thinks Holloway is either lying or just entering UFC 251 ill-prepared.
“You need that contact training. You need it,” Volkanovski told MMA Junkie on Tuesday during UFC 251 virtual media day. “Even me, I had six weeks of contact training, and I didn’t have contact training before that.
“My team went out of their way to get an exemption to make that happen, went through the government, and they got an exemption so we could do contact training because it’s important. Don’t get me wrong. I was keeping fit, and I was staying strong, but to say that I’m fight fit and ready to fight for a title, it’s just ridiculous.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t put himself in that position. He wants to take that belt. I’m sure he wants his belt back and having a camp without training partners, it just doesn’t make sense. And if that’s the case, maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he’s just fighting for the money. I don’t know what it is. Maybe he doesn’t care about this division anymore, I don’t know. If that’s the case, I really don’t think he’s committed to this fight like he should be.”
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Volkanovski hopes Holloway is playing games, and he actually had a proper training camp for their rematch. Regardless, Volkanovski feels confident he’ll beat whatever version of Holloway shows up.
“People are saying he had later rounds better, but I still won those rounds, so it just shows you when he made adjustments I was still better,” Volkanovski said. “I had a broken hand, and I was still better. So I’m not throwing shade, but I just have his number. I am the best featherweight in the world. I proved that in December, and I’ll prove it again this weekend. ”
Nonchalant entering UFC 251, Max Holloway doesn’t think the champion is acting like one.
ABU DHABI – [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] doesn’t think UFC featherweight champion [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] is carrying himself like one.
Ahead of their UFC 251 co-main event, Holloway (21-5 MMA, 17-5 UFC) presented a laid-back, nonchalant demeanor Tuesday during a virtual media day session. He shrugged off respectful criticism from Volkanovski’s coach, Eugene Bareman, and declined to interpret criticism Volkanovski (21-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) recently has shot his way.
An hour later, Holloway spoke to reporters, including MMA Junkie, at an in-person media scrum held on the “Fight Island” premises. Holloway still presented a calm demeanor but openly took exception with Volkanovski’s recent prods.
“Did you guys interview him yet?” Holloway told MMA Junkie. “Did any of you guys interview him here? How’s he talking? Is he talking like a champion? At the end of the day, I feel like he’s attacking me. He called me out to fight. That (sounds like) something a challenger does, doesn’t it? I don’t know. This guy has been saying stuff. He’s the one who’s been saying he’s got a chip on his shoulder about something. He’s ready to prove something.
“In my eyes, you’re the champ. What are you trying to prove? If you believe you’re the champ, who are you trying to prove anything to? I’m not trying to prove anything to (anyone). I knew I was the champ. There are certain things, like the belt, that is for people to understand where I was coming from. At the end of the day, his interviews speak for themselves. You can go look and tell me any different.”
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Holloway, who says he trained without in-person contact for this rematch, didn’t seem bothered by the influx of criticism this week – nor did he seem emotionally invested by the prospect he could reclaim his title Saturday at UFC 251.
Instead, Holloway lived up to his “it is what it is” mantra by expressing this fight feels the same as the rest.
“You might kill me,” Holloway said. “You might think differently, but it’s just another fight. I got five of those titles at home. They’re all in my closet. This guy could beat me two more times, and he still won’t have the same amount of titles as me. I’m beating him in that case. At the end of the day, it’s just another fight. The belt is the belt, like I said.
“I’ve been telling you guys I was the champion when I was 3-3 in the UFC. We’ll just take it one fight at a time. It’s something cool when you win this one at the end – another belt. The UFC better give me another belt.”
UFC 251 takes place Saturday at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+.
