Max Holloway Losses: Conor McGregor, Alexander Volkanovski; Ex-UFC Champ’s Every Defeat in His Career

UFC 308 is going to be a big one for BMF champion Max Holloway, who’ll have the chance to hold two belts simultaneously if he beats Ilia Topuria to claim the featherweight strap. The build-up to their fight has already been a pretty heated one, with both fighters taking shots at each other, and with less than a couple of weeks to go, fans are eagerly anticipating that contest.

Max Holloway was successful with his recent tryst with the 155-pound division, where he left fans and multiple MMA figures in absolute shock. In a fight that people doubted his chances, ‘Blessed’ registered arguably the most thrilling knockout in UFC history. However, he hasn’t been able to keep his record squeaky clean; he does have his fair share of blemishes.

Who did Max Holloway lose his belt to? Trilogy against Alexander Volkanovski

Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski have fought thrice, and every time, the Australian managed to come out on top in a comfortable fashion. ‘Volk’ took the featherweight title off of Holloway in their first encounter at UFC 245. The Hawaiian went into the bout the favorite, but the Australian was able to prevail off of an inspired performance.

An immediate rematch was in order, and they met again at UFC 251. As a matter of fact, this clash was much closer between Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski. ‘Volk’ barely scraped through a split decision after five rounds of war to retain his title. After that loss, ‘Blessed’ had to go to the back of the line and make the claim to title contention once again.

Max Holloway would defeat two contenders later, Yair Rodriguez and Calvin Kattar, before butting heads with ‘The Great’ for a trilogy bout at UFC 276, but guess what? The BMF champ would fail to capitalize on the opportunity to get his 145-pound belt back, then go on a 3-fight winning streak. However, he had a few more losses before those losses.

Other MMA losses of Max Holloway- Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and more

Max Holloway lost his first professional MMA fight to Dustin Poirier, then a featherweight at their UFC 143 clash, way back in 2012. The BMF star would lose to ‘The Diamond’ a second time, in ‘Blessed’s first foray into lightweight at UFC 236. Holloway has faced some of the biggest and most popular names in the promotion south of 170 lbs, including the then-largely unknown Conor McGregor in his second fight in 2013. The Irishman defeated Holloway via a unanimous decision in the prelims of their Fight Night card. The only other loss in the Hawaiian’s career came from Dennis Bermudez’s hands at UFC 160 the same year.

Max Holloway has been fighting in the UFC for over 12 years, having joined the promotion in 2012, after compiling a 4-0 record in smaller MMA promotions. While he lost the first of his first two fights at the promotion, including to McGregor and Poirier at 145, he rallied back strongly and put together an incredible run that made him among the greatest featherweights in history.

After the Poirier defeat, the Hawaii native went on a thirteen-fight win streak, which saw him become featherweight champion, before his fateful rematch against Poirier at featherweight. Holloway has fought 29 times in the UFC, winning 21 of those for a record of 22-7 and while he’s lost to a few fellow UFC legends, he has won against some of them as well. Which Max Holloway fight is your favorite?