Max Holloway: The Best Bodysnatcher in MMA Part 2

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For easier reading you can view this with all the gifs embedded on my blog:

http://cagecraft.net/index.php/2017/06/03/max-holloway-the-best-bodysnatcher-in-mma-part-2/

In part one we discussed Holloway’s body hooks, knees and spinning back kicks. In part two, we’re going to discuss a few more tools and then take a look at how much they take out of his opponents.

BODY KICKS

Holloway is well known for his stance switching, and one thing you can always count on is for him to throw a left round kick to the body once he switches to southpaw.



Holloway starts in southpaw and takes a small hop step to his left. He’s attempting to find a better angle for the kick and trick Collard into walking into it. Collard eats the kick but catches it with his right hand. His grip isn’t very secure, so Holloway kicks his leg to the floor while reaching with his left arm to control Collard’s head and break his posture. Collard attempts to step his right leg behind Holloway’s left foot to work a trip but he is off balance as a result of Holloway’s escape and stumbles to his left. Watch Holloway’s left arm—he never lets go of that head control. As Collard retreats, Holloway holds onto a collar tie and stays on him, throwing an awkward punch to the shoulder before landing a brutal knee to the body. Pay attention to the step up he takes with his left foot, walking into the knee and driving up onto the ball of his foot to really dig into the body—a technique we discussed in part one.



Holloway starts in his southpaw stance against Cole Miller. He feints an entry and sees Miller shuffle out of range, almost to the cage. The next time Holloway comes forward, he uses a small stutter step to delay the kick and make Miller hesitate while closing distance. He smashes his leg into Miller’s body as Miller awkwardly defends, spinning himself around in the process. Miller tries to hold on to the leg, then tries a spinning backfist, but it’s all executed poorly and Holloway has no trouble defending then rushing Miller with two hooks. Note in both this example and the previous one Holloway is quick to go on the offensive after landing his body kicks as the opponent tries to defend or counter.



In this example against Cub Swanson, the footwork and timing are the focus. Holloway begins by shuffling back and to his left in his southpaw stance, the same setup he wanted to use against Collard. As he circles that way, Cub steps to his own right in an attempt to cut Holloway off. First Cub steps his right foot out to the right, then he steps his lead foot forward. At the exact same time Cub takes that step with his lead foot, Holloway changes directions—explosively springing off his back foot in a movement that mimics a plyometric exercise. Watch each man’s lead foot steps forward at the same time, but also pay attention to where each foot goes. By circling to the left, Holloway ensures that Cub’s lead foot is stepping towards his left as he comes forward. This makes it easy for Holloway to step right and secure an outside angle where he can blast the kick to the body with almost no fear of a counter.

BODY STRAIGHTS

Another outstanding weapon in Holloway’s arsenal, though one that he hasn’t used as much, is his straight to the body. He brought them out in full force against Pettis:



Note his work to take the outside angle each time he wants to throw the punch. First he feints a low sidekick to Pettis lead leg to hop into range and step his lead foot outside, then he pivots around and uses a hop step to close distance quickly while taking that slight angle and landing the punch—avoiding Pettis’ counter right hook in the process.



And here we see more examples of him looking for that same punch, setting it up by either feinting his jab or feinting a low kick, and being sure to change levels and take his head offline each time. In the last example, Holloway feints a kick with his back leg, steps that leg forward into a southpaw stance while throwing a right hook with his now lead hand to the head, then shifting back to orthodox as he lands a left straight to the body—really creative and tricky stuff. What I’d like to see more of from Holloway is using those body straights to attack low then high.

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Holloway feints his jab as he shuffles to an outside angle, lands a right straight to the body, then a left hook upstairs as Stephens tries to circle out with his own hook. A class 1-2body-3 combination.

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Holloway shows exactly what I’m talking about here. He starts by pawing with his lead hand, trying to get Miller to extend his own. When Miller does, Holloway slips his head outside of it as he steps in, landing the straight to the body. He comes forward and feints, dropping his level. He then comes forward and dips down again, only this time instead of attacking the body he arcs his left hand around Miller’s parrying right hand to land a clean overhand, then in typical Holloway fashion swarms with a few more quick punches as Miller tries to circle out.

EFFECTS:

Now that we’re familiar with the diverse and dangerous body attack of Max Holloway, it’s time to examine the effect of all that work. Spoiler alert—it’s not pretty. By the third round most of Holloway’s opponents start looking like shit.

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There’s isn’t much technique to analyze here. What we’re looking at is body language. Both guys kick at the same time and both get knocked a little off balance, but the difference in how each guy handles it is significant. Miller, already bloodied, nearly falls off his feet as he stumbles back. More importantly, watch his face as he stumbles back. Mouth open and looking exasperated. Holloway is breathing a little heavy too, but the difference in body language and facial expressions is clear. Holloway looks focused while Miller looks like he’s just ready for this to be over—that’s why he looks at the clock right at the end of the gif. It’s a common sight to see this in the third round of Holloway fights.

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Look how exhausted Collard is here. Holloway is able to break his forward momentum by simply pushing him back, then when Collard comes forward again everything is sloppy, awkward and slow. He puts on an incredibly brave assault in the face of that fatigue but Holloway is able to easily knock him back with a sharp counter jab. Collard had absolutely no quit in him but by the end he simply had no energy left to fight back.

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This is a recurring theme with Holloway. He tends to surge in the third round, swarming his tired opponents, hurting them then either continuing to pound away until the ref pulls him off or locking in a submission when they make a mistake.

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With Fili (who’s normally the stronger wrestler) pinned against the cage, Holloway begins his assault. He uses his left forearm to frame against Fili’s face, allowing him to create space. He withdraws his overhook and smashes Fili with a right elbow. Fili turns his back and tries to run, but Holloway cuts him off with a long left hand then hits him in the temple with his right straight before narrowly missing a 1-2. With Fili again pinned against the cage, Holloway uses a short left hook to set up a nice right uppercut before missing with a left hook. Fili takes the opening created by the miss to shoot, opting for a high crotch. Holloway gets his left forearm in the way of Fili’s head then pivots hard away from the shot, which allows him to create space between his ribs and Fili’s head. Through this space, he shoots his left hand and immediately connects it to his right. Fili runs the pipe to finish his single, but that only puts Holloway in better position for the finish. Holloway goes for the high elbow guillotine, and takes advantage of the angle his hips landed at to kick his right leg over and turn Fili onto his side. Holloway cranks on it for a brutal guillotine finish. Ironically, maybe 10 seconds before this finish the commentators had been discussing how good Fili’s guillotine defense is from training at TAM.

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Sometimes his opponents fade early. No matter when it happens, as soon as Holloway notices his opponent slowing down he speeds up. Will Chope was ready for the fight to be over by the second round, so Holloway was generous enough to send him home early. Again, pay attention to the body language. Chope doesn’t throw a single strike or do anything that indicates he wants to fight back. He just shells up and hopes nothing gets through, but Holloway easily hooks around the static guard and puts him down—going for his signature body hook at the end. Holloway’s body work is always vicious, but once his opponents slow down it really stands out.

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Cub eats three hard shots to the body in a row here. First, an intercepting knee as loads up on a left hook. Even though he pushes Holloway all the way back to the cage, he is deterred enough by the knee to start backing up. Holloway follows him, hopping outside his lead foot and landing a nice uppercut to the body. He stays on Cub, who starts ducking down to his right. As a result, Holloway blasts him with a body kick. Cub takes a slow, sloppy shot and is easily reversed. Soon after he was finished.

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Holloway feints, tricking Cub into slipping right. Cub highly prefers head movement to his right side, and a natural tendency is to turn the lead foot in when you slip to the right. This exposes you to the outside angle, which Holloway easily moves to and lands a left straight while Cub’s back is turned. The straight snaps Cub’s head around to cause him to look completely away from Holloway, and Holloway keeps that left hand framing in Cub’s face to force his head to stay turned until a right hand comes and hits him in the temple. Cub goes stumbling back and Holloway chases him down with alternating punches. Both men slip, but Holloway gets back to his feet faster. Cub tries to shoot the rushing Holloway, but his shot is terrible. He ends up with his legs straight, head way out in front of them and being forced downwards by pressure from Holloway. As he struggles to walk his feet up and regain his posture, Holloway locks in the guillotine. Again, he goes high elbow and cranks it hard. Note the step he takes to his right, outside of Cub’s left foot, which he uses combined with the high elbow to twist Cub to the mat, step over into mount and squeeze for the tap.

His most impressive finish on paper came when he stopped Anthony Pettis in the third round.

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The gif starts with Pettis raising his lead leg to feint. As he puts it down, Holloway cracks him with a left hook to the head then follows it with a hard right kick to the body—a classic muay thai combination. Pettis walks away and takes a deep breath, which you should have noticed by now is a common occurrence for Holloway’s opponents. A few seconds later, Holloway backs Pettis up with another body kick and, sensing Pettis fading, his killer instinct kicks in. Holloway starts teeing off on a shelled up Pettis, completely overwhelming him and forcing the ref to step in. From a better angle, you can see how brutal Holloway’s body hooks are.

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Many will blame Pettis’ bad weight cut for him breaking in the third, and that was absolutely a factor, but Holloway’s relentless body assault led directly to the finish. No matter how much gas you have in the tank, body shots cause that tank to leak—and by the end of the fight Holloway’s opponents tend to be running on empty. Tonight, he fights Jose Aldo vs the Featherweight title. There are many interesting aspects to this fight. Will Holloway be able to keep up his usual output in the face of Aldo’s brilliant counter punching? Will Aldo struggle with Holloway’s rangy style and tricky set ups? Will Holloway have an answer for Aldo’s chopping low kicks? Will Holloway be able to snipe Aldo with his long counter straights? I don’t have the answer to those questions, but one thing I do know is that body work should be one of the main focuses of Holloway’s gameplan. It’s one of the few things he does better than Aldo, and better than anyone else in the sport.

For more analysis please visit my blog:

http://cagecraft.net/
 
So if he likes switching stances, is he a TKD guy?

Also how does his game plan work against wrasslers?
 
Jab

Cross

1

2

Finest combination in combat sports.
 
That body work pays off yet again. Holloway committed to the body punches early and by the beginning of the 3rd round the counter right hand that Aldo was landing on Max in the first 2 rounds had slowed down enough that it was missing most of the time. Once Holloway loosened up and started landing the body kicks, everything started going downhill for Aldo.

It's good to see that Max understands body work and 5 round fights, you can afford to give away a round or 2 early while working over the body, it's a long fight and there's lots of time to turn the opponent into a walking zombie and kill him in the later going.
 
That body work pays off yet again. Holloway committed to the body punches early and by the beginning of the 3rd round the counter right hand that Aldo was landing on Max in the first 2 rounds had slowed down enough that it was missing most of the time. Once Holloway loosened up and started landing the body kicks, everything started going downhill for Aldo.

It's good to see that Max understands body work and 5 round fights, you can afford to give away a round or 2 early while working over the body, it's a long fight and there's lots of time to turn the opponent into a walking zombie and kill him in the later going.

Exactly, well said. Nobody is talking about the body work but Holloway has now broken Cub, Pettis and Aldo all in the third round. Amazing fight and incredible performance by Holloway.
 
Jab

Cross

1

2

Finest combination in combat sports.

Holloway has one of the best 1-2s in MMA, but more importantly his body work is by FAR the best in the sport.
 
So if he likes switching stances, is he a TKD guy?

Also how does his game plan work against wrasslers?

No definitely not TKD. He's a 17 fight UFC vet at only 25 years old. His style is MMA. He's an MMA guy, primarily a boxer stylistically but with excellent knees, very good body kicks and spinning back kicks.

He hasn't fought many. We'll see when he fights Edgar, but I expect a lot of jabs to keep range, body punches and knees to the body every time he defends a shot.
 
Holloway has one of the best 1-2s in MMA, but more importantly his body work is by FAR the best in the sport.


Oh i agree, i just gotta plug that every opportunity i get.
 
Oh i agree, i just gotta plug that every opportunity i get.

lol fair. Both guys landed some nasty 1-2s. As happy as I am for Holloway, I'm sad because Aldo was looking unstoppable before the body shots drained him.
 
lol fair. Both guys landed some nasty 1-2s. As happy as I am for Holloway, I'm sad because Aldo was looking unstoppable before the body shots drained him.
The problem is Jose didn't invest in anything other than headhunting. I really don't know what his meta strategy was in this fight.

Also, wtf happened to all his leads? I understand he has a solid jab but that's not enough to keep an intelligent pressure fighter off you for 5 rounds. Also used to have sick leads that would make his opponents think twice about everything: the dutchie, lead uppercut etc. It's almost like he saw his success against Edgar and tried to do the exact same thing against a diff fighter in Max.

Edit: and apparently Nova Uniao doesn't teach half guard
 
The problem is Jose didn't invest in anything other than headhunting. I really don't know what his meta strategy was in this fight.

Also, wtf happened to all his leads? I understand he has a solid jab but that's not enough to keep an intelligent pressure fighter off you for 5 rounds. Also used to have sick leads that would make his opponents think twice about everything: the dutchie, lead uppercut etc. It's almost like he saw his success against Edgar and tried to do the exact same thing against a diff fighter in Max.

Edit: and apparently Nova Uniao doesn't teach half guard

Aldo was doing good work with his body punching, he did have some nice leads and he did land some nasty shots on Holloway. He got countered hard the one leg kick he threw, then gassed out because of the body work. By the time he hit the ground he was rocked and running on empty.
 
Aldo was doing good work with his body punching, he did have some nice leads and he did land some nasty shots on Holloway. He got countered hard the one leg kick he threw, then gassed out because of the body work. By the time he hit the ground he was rocked and running on empty.
Yeah but he used to be so diverse in his striking....now it's just hands and the occasional flying knee when he pushes someone to the fence. I def think his cardio was a problem and he landed a few straight rights to the body but Max had the much better 5rd fight gameplan. Had Also invested in some of those leg kicks he could have slowed Max down and controlled the pace much better.

Edit: only watched once and it was super late but even though I felt Aldo was winning the first two rds, I wasn't quite sure where he was going with anything.
 
Yeah but he used to be so diverse in his striking....now it's just hands and the occasional flying knee when he pushes someone to the fence. I def think his cardio was a problem and he landed a few straight rights to the body but Max had the much better 5rd fight gameplan. Had Also invested in some of those leg kicks he could have slowed Max down and controlled the pace much better.

Edit: only watched once and it was super late but even though I felt Aldo was winning the first two rds, I wasn't quite sure where he was going with anything.

Yea he didn't invest in the leg kicks because the one he through got him blasted. He was the better boxer early, until he gassed. He was really starting to open up but Holloway put holes in his tank then stepped on the gas.
 
Yea he didn't invest in the leg kicks because the one he through got him blasted. He was the better boxer early, until he gassed. He was really starting to open up but Holloway put holes in his tank then stepped on the gas.
I'm not trying to discredit Max in any way just felt like Jose could have controlled the pace a bit better...mix in those kicks at the end of combos, more diverse in his leads etc. One counter shouldn't dissuade you from using not only your best but arguably most important weapon against a pressure fighter like Max. That lead leg was there the whole time and one leg kick in almost 3 rds wasn't the best gameplan. His beautiful lead hook to the body>leg kick combo was there all day. Jose had a few nice lead hooks but I just question if he invested too much on strictly his boxing and headhunting.

Max constant pressure was awesome, though. Even after getting blasted with that big combo in the first, he just kept pressing. Right there in his face and his lack of respect was something I don't think Jose was ready for. He was there to be hit but wore down Jose with the body work and volume. He kept Jose backing up and on the backfoot most of the fight.

The thing that really surprised me (though he was obv rocked) was once Jose was finally on his back the lack of awareness to establish a half guard, get an underhook and work his way up. He kept trying to kick off, get back to closed guard or just get up...the latter at really bad times. I kept asking myself why the fuck doesn't he get to half and work from there.
 
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I would so much rather just get KOed than get worn down with body shots and hardly be able to defend late in the fight. That's such a goddamn terrible feeling. You can almost see your stamina bar drop in your own head every time you take a solid knee or kick to the body.
 
I would so much rather just get KOed than get worn down with body shots and hardly be able to defend late in the fight. That's such a goddamn terrible feeling. You can almost see your stamina bar drop in your own head every time you take a solid knee or kick to the body.

Haha yea just look how miserable Holloway's opponent's look by the end of the fight. Terrible feeling to have your body fail like that.
 
Exactly, well said. Nobody is talking about the body work but Holloway has now broken Cub, Pettis and Aldo all in the third round. Amazing fight and incredible performance by Holloway.

And he just did it again. Dear god Holloway is good, if you're at 145 and you can't take him down you are well and truly fucked. His distance control, footwork, and movement is noticeably sharper and everything he does is just crisper and better. Also has incredible flow & natural instincts when he's cranking up the volume & pressure, the way he mixes up his timing, targets, and strikes is unreal.

Aldo came in with a different gameplan this time but the results were pretty much the same, once Holloway started getting his body shots to land in the latter half of the 2nd round it was all downhill once again. Land the body shots, kill the gas tank, pressure and force extended exchanges, then step on the gas and pour on the volume for the kill. Another outstanding performance from Holloway.
 
And he just did it again. Dear god Holloway is good, if you're at 145 and you can't take him down you are well and truly fucked. His distance control, footwork, and movement is noticeably sharper and everything he does is just crisper and better. Also has incredible flow & natural instincts when he's cranking up the volume & pressure, the way he mixes up his timing, targets, and strikes is unreal.

Aldo came in with a different gameplan this time but the results were pretty much the same, once Holloway started getting his body shots to land in the latter half of the 2nd round it was all downhill once again. Land the body shots, kill the gas tank, pressure and force extended exchanges, then step on the gas and pour on the volume for the kill. Another outstanding performance from Holloway.
Aldo learned nothing from his last fight with Max, he should've gone the McGregor approach vs Nate Diaz, another iron chinned cardio machine. Instead he tries to KO him with every punch and got suckered into a war at the end, just what those type of fighters want so they can drown you. The leg kicks were working, he should've gone hard on those but always seemed to resort to haymakers.

I guess its safe to safe Max snatched Aldo's soul for good this time, time to hang em up or try changing weightclasses.
 
Aldo learned nothing from his last fight with Max, he should've gone the McGregor approach vs Nate Diaz, another iron chinned cardio machine. Instead he tries to KO him with every punch and got suckered into a war at the end, just what those type of fighters want so they can drown you. The leg kicks were working, he should've gone hard on those but always seemed to resort to haymakers.

I guess its safe to safe Max snatched Aldo's soul for good this time, time to hang em up or try changing weightclasses.

Must admit, I didn't expect Aldo to learn based on the fact that Renan Barao learned nothing from his loss to Dillashaw - I think that camp relies on being outstanding and better than everyone else, so when they find someone who beats them they just think 'eh, rematch will be different' and then just expect to be better the second time.
 
I liked Aldo's head movement though, that was improved. His main problem was gassing imo.
 
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