While Max Holloway is the UFC’s BMF champ, he is strongly against unnecessary violence outside of the Octagon.
Holloway recently spoke out against gun violence, which has recently been rampant in his home state of Hawaii. When asked about a shooting in West Oahu, the former featherweight champ urged Hawaiians to put down the guns and find other ways to solve their issues.
Holloway noted that settling beefs with fist fights is better than using guns. “Blessed” also suggests people to go to the gym or play shooting games instead of taking up real guns.
“It sucks, man. Put the guns down, boys. Put ‘em down,” Holloway told Hawaiian outlet KHON2. “If you guys got a problem, do it the old-school way. Go to the boxing gym, put on some gloves and punch each other and then shake hands and be on with it. I remember when we was growing up, street fights, I wouldn’t say do it, but shooting someone is something different. At the end of the day, stop the violence, go in the gym. Go do something, go lift weights. Go throw weights. Play video games or something. You wanna shoot somebody, go play Apex or Call of Duty or something like that.
“Keep the violence off the streets, and you have to think about the younger generation that’s coming up. I know the generation right now is super young doing it, but you gotta think of your little brother, your little sister, your nieces, your nephews. Keep the streets good for them and keep striving. Let’s not have that bad taste in our mouth when it comes to the westside. We already got enough bad news coming out of there. Let’s not add more.”
After three failed title bids against Alexander Volkanovski, Holloway had lost some relevance in the featherweight title picture until recently. The Hawaiian accepted a lightweight matchup against Justin Gaethje for the BMF title at UFC 300 this past April. Holloway beat down Gaethje for five rounds before iconically pointing to the ground for a slugfest and knocking “The Highlight” out in a buzzer beater. Holloway is now slated to challenge Ilia Topuria for the featherweight title at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
