UFC’s Holloway knows his importance to the community

The blue and red cap with the “W” often seen on Max Holloway’s head is symbolic in more ways than one.

He loves Waianae, and he loves baseball.

The first is his home. The second was his game as a kid.

“It was my first sport, but my arm was junk,” Holloway said.

Now that arm is a feared weapon in mixed martial arts. Actually, both arms, both fists. And his legs and feet.

His striking power vs. the grappling skills of Charles Oliveira make for an intriguing matchup Sunday in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Holloway headlines for the first time in the UFC, the big leagues of MMA.

A victory — which would be his seventh in a row — puts him one step closer to a possible title shot. But the No. 5-ranked featherweight insists he is focused only on Oliveira, the No. 7-ranked in the class, from Brazil.

And while Holloway never forgets who he’s fighting next, he always remembers where he is from.

For someone so young (he turns 24 in December), Holloway possesses a strong sense of his importance to his community as the latest in the long line of Leeward Coast sports heroes.

He knows all about the generations of boxers; like the Pelen family, even Fred Pereira, who started the Waianae Boxing Club 53 years ago.

He knows about the football tradition — Larry Ginoza, Kurt Gouveia and the Seariders’ history of championships attained through disciplined play as much as by talent.

It’s been a while, though, since Waianae had a star of Holloway’s potential magnitude. It’s cost him any kind of anonymity, but he doesn’t mind.

It wasn’t that long ago that he was just another skinny, hard-nosed kid from one of Oahu’s poorest areas. But as the victories have piled up quickly, Holloway’s popularity soars … throughout the state, not just in Waianae.

In April, he dominated a pretty decent fighter in Cub Swanson and closed out the win with a third-round submission. When he got home from Newark, N.J., he found he’d attained checkout-line fame … the kind where strangers at the grocery store start conversations like they know you.

“Even the uncles and aunties who didn’t know who I was before, probably didn’t like MMA before,” he said. “Now they see me and they tell me how much it means to them, and the community.”

Holloway’s engaging personality simultaneously projects confidence and a fair amount of humility. It’s a style that appeals to Hawaii people, and with the retirement of BJ Penn, Holloway has emerged as the face and voice of MMA in the islands.

Obviously, it’s because of Penn’s retirement and Holloway’s winning streak and rising star status. But even if he weren’t a fighter Holloway might be a good promoter.

He still defers to Penn, though, and hopes his idol will return for one more fight, helping to lure the UFC to the islands for a show.

Holloway wasn’t a troublemaker at Waianae, and describes himself as just a typical kid, but with ambition.

“I did well in school. But it wasn’t that I was the smartest,” he said. “I would stay in the classroom during recess and learn from the smart kids.”

Whatever he was going to end up doing, his goal was to prove wrong the assumption that people from Waianae can’t make it.

“Growing up, I just knew that I wanted to be good at something.”

When it became apparent it wasn’t going to be baseball, he took up kickboxing.

At that time, other kids laughed when Max Holloway told them he’d become a UFC fighter someday.

That day came quickly, in 2012, less than two years after his high school graduation. Now, on Sunday, Waianae’s and Hawaii’s best has a chance to move one step closer to world’s best.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.