Max Holloway believes Ilia Topuria’s recent run isn’t as good as people think.
Topuria is coming off three-straight knockout wins over Charles Oliveira, Max Holloway, and Alexander Volkanovski to win the featherweight belt and lightweight title. However, Holloway believes the names are big, including himself, but none of them were at the peak or on massive winning streaks as they had been in the past.
“It’s just tough, right? Yeah, he beat the names, and you can’t deny that,” Holloway said to SHAK MMA. “But then when you look, it just sucks with everything that’s going on when you look at that Volk fight – Volk coming off what he did (in a knockout loss to Islam Makhachev). That’s kind of crazy. But people just look at the name. They’re not looking at the record.
“They’re just like, ‘Oh, Alex was the champ,’ and then me and then Charles. Charles was on a one-fight win streak,” Holloway added. “At the end of the day, they’re just moments and they’re 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. The UFC are lining people up for him, and he’s just knocking them down. So, fair play to him.”
It’s an interesting comment from Holloway as Topuria was the first person to finish him, but he still doesn’t think the winning streak is all that impressive.
