Where Does Max Holloway Train? Gym, Coaches and More About the Ex-UFC Champ’s Training

Max Holloway is one of the best fighters the sport of MMA has ever seen, and this claim isn’t even a stretch. His career has spanned over a decade and ‘Blessed’ has emerged as a champion in multiple promotions and has multiple accolades to his name. Today, we will be looking behind the curtains and uncovering the people behind his success: his coaches, the gym where he trains, and the people who the former featherweight champion trains with.

Born in the Hawaiian capital of Honolulu, Max Holloway was raised in a census-designated place, named Waianae – a place famous for fist fighting. He had a rough childhood, as both of his parents battled with drug abuse. Although his mother has recovered from her predicament, not much is known about his father, who reportedly deserted his family. Holloway got his first taste of combat sports in kickboxing when he was 16 years old and joined ‘Team Ruthless‘. After two years of completing high school, the UFC would come knocking to give him a professional MMA contract, and started his training with ‘Gracie Technics‘.

Meet Ivan Flores and Rylen Lizares, Max Holloway’s coaches

The former featherweight champion has been associated with ‘Gracie Technics’ ever since he started his MMA career back in 2010. The gym is located in his hometown of Honolulu. Max Holloway primarily works with two coaches, Ivan Flores for striking and Rylen Lizares for jiu-jitsu, who is also the head instructor at ‘Gracie Technics’. He has also been seen training at ‘Legacy Muay Thai‘ under coach Ricky Penn.

Max Holloway is not known much for his grappling, since he claims to be the “best boxer in the UFC.” However, the Honolulu native has a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, which he earned from his head coach. It’ll be interesting to how things pan out for the self-proclaimed “best boxer in the UFC” when he puts in all the work and finally steps inside the cage against Ilia Topuria at UFC 308 to try and claim the featherweight title for the second time.

Now, let us take a look at the teammates of the former champion, and there are a few of them.

Where is Holloway’s gym? Who are his teammates?

‘Gracie Technics’ is mostly known for its jiu-jitsu and hence, the gym has only a handful of representatives in the sport of MMA. However, Max Holloway does have a teammate who fights in the UFC, Tyson Nam. The 40-year-old is relatively a newcomer to the gym since he joined ‘Gracie Technics’ in 2021.

Nam has always had praises for the former featherweight champion and claims to be happy to have reaped the benefits of training with Holloway. Some of the other teammates of Max Holloway are former UFC fighters Dustin Kimura, Cheyden Leialoha, Arnold Berdon, and Pierre Daguzan, just to name a few. Most of ‘Blessed’s teammates are currently active, except for Kimura, who had his last fight in 2014.

Ilia Topuria has been on a roll ever since making his UFC debut and is still undefeated. However, we can never count out the experience of Max Holloway, as it remains to be seen how things go down this weekend in Las Vegas.

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