What martial arts does Max Holloway use?

Hawaiian MMA fighter Max Holloway is best known for his boxing skills inside the octagon. However, less is known about the other martial arts that he often uses. As you would expect from an MMA fighter (mixed martial arts), he’s not just a boxer and also has to rely on other skills and techniques as well. This is to be expected though for someone who had their first amateur MMA bout at just age 15 which he ended up winning.

You may have noticed that Holloway is pretty skilled too, once going on a 13 fight win streak in the UFC, which saw him capture the UFC Featherweight title and successfully defend it twice in a row. Read on for more information about one of Hawaii’s greatest ever MMA fighters and UFC Champions background in martial arts.

Max Holloway uses Boxing

According to Holloway, he is “The best boxer in the UFC”, and honestly, he may be right. In fact, the majority of his wins come from knockouts and in short, if you can’t take Holloway to the ground then he will probably beat you whilst standing up. He even holds the record for the most strikes in a single UFC bout which is 445 against Calvin Kattar. When using his boxing, Holloway will often use his left hand as a jab and follows up with a right handed uppercut.

Arguably, his left jab is one of the greatest ever in the UFC as it helps turn defense into offense whilst packing a very powerful sting. Interestingly, although Holloway is known as using an orthodox stance, he also switches to southpaw too which keeps his opponents guessing. As you would expect for such as killed featherweight, he is also good at using fast combos too which can overwhelm his opponents.

Max Holloway uses Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Although Brazilian Jiu Jitsu should be used by most modern-day MMA fighters inside the octagon, sadly it’s not. Thankfully for Holloway though, he is a brown belt under Ryan Lizares which is the rank before black belt. Whilst fighting in the UFC, Holloway has also used his BJJ on a couple of occasions, securing two victories by using the guillotine choke. For the most part though, Holloway uses his BJJ from a defensive perspective.

This means if he gets taken down, then Holloway will turn to his BJJ to escape bad positions and try to recover to his feet which is where he’s strongest. In short, this also shows a high fight IQ from Holloway who uses his BJJ when necessary but mostly likes to play to his strengths. Interestingly, Holloway has also been seen training in the gi. Generally, most MMA fighters neglect the gi as it’s deemed less realistic compared to nogi. Nonetheless, a lot of top BJJ practitioners claim the gi is ideal to learn escapes in which ties in with Holloway’s BJJ philosophy.

Max Holloway uses wrestling

Although Holloway is not a recognized wrestler, this is like BJJ in that any fighter at the top needs to learn wrestling. Perhaps in the earlier day of MMA wrestling wasn’t used that much. However, now it is. Again, we should re-iterate that Max Holloway mostly favors boxing and standing on his feet. With this in mind, you won’t see him shooting for takedowns much. Nonetheless, it’s still important for him to know defensive wrestling. This means defending takedowns by sprawling, working against the cage, and pummelling to improve your arm positions. Without this, his entire boxing technique gets undermined entirely.

In other words, whilst Holloway isn’t known as a wrestler and won’t use it unless he has to, he’s still very well versed in defensive wrestling. In this sense, his wrestling strategy is similar to Connor McGregor’s. Like Holloway, McGregor is known for his elite boxing skills. McGregor will only wrestler to keep his feet on the ground and is known for being tough to take down. This is the same for Max Holloway.

Max Holloway uses Muay Thai

Whilst Holloway is a great boxer, it would also be a shame if he neglected the legs when it comes to striking. Therefore, it makes sense that Holloway also uses Muay Thai. Again, it should be added that this isn’t his main skill set but is nonetheless important and he wouldn’t want to be too reliant on boxing. This means that sometimes, Holloway will mix things up and throw kicks and knees into the equation. As seen at times, Holloway also throws some pretty devastating knees from the Thai clinch and also uses teep kicks to create distance.

Once again, this shows a high fight IQ from Holloway who isn’t afraid to switch from attack to defense when necessary. Over the years, several videos have surfaced that show Holloway training Muay Thai. One of these includes training with the legendary Samart Payakaroon whilst in Bangkok. Holloway visited Thailand on this occasion to improve his Thai boxing and went straight to its heartlands.

Summary

Overall, it’s very clear that Max Holloway is primarily a boxer. However, to label him as just a boxer is also doing him a massive injustice. As seen, he can also strike using Muay Thai techniques, whilst his grappling is covered by a combination of BJJ and wrestling. With both striking and grappling covered, it’s no surprise that Holloway is such a skilled martial artist as he doesn’t really have any flaws in his game.

With this said, it’s fair to say that Holloway is a true definition of a mixed martial artist. What’s more, is that it also shows a good mindset when someone actively trains the lesser parts of their game such as wrestling and Muay Thai to help improve their overall skill level. In conclusion, Max Holloway’s fighting style combines devastating boxing with Muay Thai kicks, defensive wrestling, and BJJ which is what makes him one of the best fighters on the planet.

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