Waianae’s Max Holloway established himself as a legitimate world-title contender in the 145-pound division on Saturday night, dismantling Cub Swanson in a third-round submission victory at UFC on Fox 15 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.
The 23-year-old won his sixth consecutive fight to improve to 13-3 overall and 9-3 in the UFC. Only current champion Jose Aldo has a longer winning streak in the division.
Holloway, ranked ninth in the UFC’s divisional rankings at featherweight, dominated all 14 minutes against Swanson (21-6, 6-3), who was ranked fifth.
"It feels great. It just feels great," Holloway said in a post-fight interview with UFC commentator Joe Rogan. "I’ve been inside the gym — in and out of the gym — pretty much living in the gym, and am just happy to see all of the hard work pay off."
The first two rounds were fought entirely on the feet, with Holloway the quicker fighter to nearly every exchange.
He set the tone with a wide array of punches and kicks and had Swanson’s left eye swelling up midway through the first round.
Swanson, who had never lost back-to-back fights in his career, was buckled at the end of the round with an uppercut and threw two punches after the bell sounded.
Holloway turned up the pressure in the third round and nearly finished the fight with an arm triangle, but Swanson eventually got back to his feet.
Holloway caught Swanson with two vicious shots to the body and went for a standing guillotine choke.
He kept it locked in as he took Swanson to the ground and sunk it in hard enough from the top to force his grimacing opponent to tap out at 3 minutes, 58 seconds.
He received one of the two performance of the night bonuses handed out by the UFC worth $50,000.
"Everybody was counting me out on the feet, (saying) Holloway’s got to do what Frankie Edgar did," Holloway said. "I’m a striker. Max Holloway strikes. Look at my fights. When do I ever try to take someone down? It doesn’t happen."
Holloway has finished five of his past six opponents and scored his first win over a top-five opponent.
Since making his professional debut, Swanson’s only losses had come against former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver, Aldo, No. 1-ranked challenger Chad Mendes, Edgar, who is ranked No. 2, and No. 4 Ricardo Lamas.
Holloway hasn’t lost since fighting Conor McGregor in August 2013 and is the only fighter to go the distance with McGregor, who fights Aldo for the featherweight title in July.
In the post-fight press conference, Holloway had no preference for who he wanted to fight next, but he did have an idea where he wanted it to happen.
"(UFC President) Dana White, bring one (event) down to Hawaii, let’s get one," he said. "You’ve got seven fighters from Hawaii in the UFC. I want to fight one back home."
White, who moderated the press conference, did not respond to the request, but did say, "What Max did tonight was unbelievable."
