- One of the
UFC 's best competitors,Max Holloway , has said he has been unable to train properly ahead of his huge featherweight title fight on "Fight Island " Saturday. - Holloway said last week that he was not able to spar and had to work-out at home, conducting sessions over Zoom.
- Holloway only met his coaches at the Las Vegas airport before a private jet took him and his team to Abu Dhabi, for this weekend's "Fight Island" event.
- Some are not buying the claims.
- His opponent, the champion,
Alexander Volkanovski , had to receive a special exemption from the government to spar. He dismissed Holloway's comments as "s---."
FIGHT ISLAND — Max Holloway says he didn't spar ahead of his UFC title fight Saturday and did training sessions over Zoom, alone.
Unconventional times require unconventional methods, and health measures Hawaii enforced to help combat the coronavirus — like gym closures and social-distancing — appeared to put Holloway, a 28-year-old mixed martial artist from that state, at a disadvantage as he prepared for a high-stakes rematch against Alexander Volkanovksi.
Holloway fights Volkanovski in the co-main event at the first of the UFC's four, much-hyped "Fight Island" events, UFC 251, on July 11 at Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.
Normally, he'd be working with multiple members of his coaching team, and drilling punch routines and groundwork with training partners. But none of this happened this time around, Holloway told ESPN recently.
"Everything we was doing was through Zoom," Holloway said. "If you got caught at the gym, because there was a lockdown and stuff, we could all get arrested.
"We just did it smart. We did what we could. I stayed at home and did a bunch of training at home. The only thing really that I was missing in this camp was this treadmill that I usually use, but we figured it out. I think it's one of the best camps I ever had."
A lack of training partners may raise alarms bells, but Holloway said he enjoyed the experience. "No sparring at all," he said.
"I actually kind of liked it. First time not sparring. I love sparring but this camp opened my eyes. We don't even have to spar that much anymore. 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 why spar?"
Bloody Elbow reported that Holloway only saw his coaches for the first time at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, last week, before a chartered flight took the team, and other UFC athletes, coaches, and staff, to Abu Dhabi.
"The camp was not like anything we've done before," Rylan Lizares, Holloway's head coach, said Tuesday during the second episode of the UFC 251 Embedded: Vlog series on YouTube.
"The gym actually closed down and we're still closed, it's been over three months, and we haven't run any classes. We've done mostly online.
"This is actually one of the camps where I didn't train with Max at all," Lizares said. "It's been completely different than what we've done in the past."
People are skeptical that Holloway's claim is legit
The former two-weight UFC champion and UFC commentator Dan Cormier doubts the statements which have come from Holloway and his camp.
"You actually believe that a guy, who won the featherweight title, won 15 fights in a row, is just training on Zoom?" Cormier said Monday on ESPN. "There's no way Max Holloway trained on Zoom. He did something more."
Regardless of whether Holloway enjoyed a camp full of contact-sparring or if he trained via a video link, Cormier believes Volkanovski will be unaffected. "[He] is a true professional," Cormier said.
Undefeated since 2013, Volkanovski out-pointed Holloway at UFC 245 in December, last year, adding another win to a run that has now stretched to 18 in a row, and includes victories over Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes, to boot.
In contrast to Holloway, Volkanovski has enjoyed full-contact training and had to receive an exemption from the government to spar and work inside an exclusive space in his gym, in Australia, according to the Australian Associated Press.
Speaking to ESPN, Volkanovski said he doesn't believe Holloway trained using Zoom. "That's all s---," he said.
"Whether he's doing it to cover things on his end — I don't want to accuse him of anything — but we had to get exemptions to train, so I couldn't train until I got that done.
"So there was a lot that needed to happen for the government. Again, I'm not going to accuse him of anything, but I don't believe that he hasn't been training.
"I'm preparing for a fully prepared Max either way."
Volkanovski defends his UFC featherweight title Saturday at UFC 251 inside a purpose-built behind-closed-doors arena on "Fight Island."
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