Ilia Topuria is a copycat of Conor McGregor trying to steal his aura, and Max Holloway’s “point to the middle” trademark, believes Holloway.
Max Holloway gets another stab at his old featherweight title at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi this Saturday, and the build-up to his headliner with champ Ilia Topuria has been interesting to say the least.
In recent days, Topuria, who claimed gold from Holloway’s old rival Alexander Volkanovski, has claimed he wants to point to the center of the cage in the first 10 seconds of the fight, and trade with Holloway. That’s a riff on Holloway standing and trading with opponents at the end of fights, giving them a chance to land a home run so to speak.
At the beginning of the fight? Tactically speaking, that’s a bit odd. Or, as Holloway put it during Wednesday’s UFC 308 media day, “It just makes no sense, you know? At the end of the day, to me, I don’t think he deserves- you’ve got to earn that right, and I don’t think he deserves that right.”
“With him being— you know the guy he’s copycatting. This guy’s a copycat, down to the tattoos, his aura, to the way he’s approaching fights. The guy’s a copycat, and you’re best friends with the guy he’s following, I mean trying to copy.”
Holloway was clearly referencing Conor McGregor, the sport’s biggest star and one of the all-time greats of trash talking and mental warfare in MMA. McGregor holds a win over a much younger Holloway, but when it comes to Topura, “Blessed” feels the new champ hasn’t earned a “stand-and-trade” moment.
“At the end of the day, I think you’ve got to earn that moment. And I believe he could have earned it with Josh Emmett, in their five-round war. Josh Emmett was trying to swing. If you guys go back to that fight and watch what happened, when Josh Emmett tried to swing, someone shot, and someone held someone down for the rest of the fight. So I think the moment needs to be earned, and he’s just trying to steal stuff. He already trying to steal one person’s aura, and now he’s trying to steal somebody else’s thing. It’s amazing.”
That said, Holloway has nothing but respect for Topuria’s abilities. As he put it, “as a fighter, you cannot be a hater and say he’s not good. Is he proven? He did what he had to do when he had to do it to get to the position he has, so there’s no disrespect to that. But he gets to see me come Saturday night, so that should be fun.”
When it was brought to his attention that an athlete outside the UFC had recently attempted the “point to the middle” gesture only to butt-scoot into an attempt at grappling, Holloway clarified just when the option is appropriate.
“Everybody can point to the middle. It is what it is. But what you’re going to do in the middle? If you’re doing it because of the way I’m doing it, you cannot step back,” he stated. “You’ve got to go in there and step in the fire and throw. But you know, who knows bro. Some people, they point down and shoot after. Maybe that’s their secret move. Or point down and booty scoot now, that’s pretty cool.”
Watch the full UFC 308 media day appearance by Max Holloway above.
