As the milestones continue to pile up, Max Holloway is showing no signs of slowing down.
The former UFC featherweight champion bounced back from a third loss to Alexander Volkanovski by outpointing up-and-comer Arnold Allen in a unanimous decision in the main event of a UFC Fight Night card on Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.
Holloway, who became the third fighter to log more than seven hours of fight time in a UFC octagon, handed Allen, the No. 4-ranked featherweight, his first loss in 11 UFC fights.
The judges scored the fight 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 in favor of Holloway (24-7, 20-7), who has gone the 25-minute distance in eight consecutive main event fights.
His 19 wins at featherweight are the most in the division and his 27 total fights match B.J. Penn for the most by a Hawaii-born fighter.
He’s the only fighter to land more than 3,000 significant strikes in his career, and with the win over Allen (19-2, 10-1), Holloway owns victories over interim champion Yair Rodriguez and the other two top-ranked contenders.
“We still here, you know. I told you guys we still here,” Holloway said in the post-fight press conference. “The (motivation) of this fight was we still here.”
As was the case two years ago when he bounced back from a Volkanovski loss to beat Calvin Kattar convincingly, the 31-year-old Holloway beat yet another up-and-comer to remain near the top of a stacked division.
Holloway put on a vintage performance with his signature nonstop, relentless attack from all angles.
His two- and three-punch combinations kept Allen at bay for much of the fight, allowing him to win rounds and force Allen into needing a stoppage in the fifth to win.
“I thought he was going to come more soon in like the fourth or the fifth, actually the fourth round,” Holloway said. “After three rounds I thought we were probably up, he’s going to step on the gas pedal and now this is where the inexperience would come.”
Allen stayed patient until the final round, when he let everything go at Holloway, landing multiple overhand lefts, with one that immediately caused Holloway’s right eye to start swelling.
In the closing seconds, Holloway and Allen engaged in back-and-forth haymakers, with Holloway dropping Allen to the ground seconds before the final bell sounded.
It was a lot like the closing seconds of Holloway’s memorable win over Ricardo Lamas, when Holloway pointed to the mat and the two started exchanging punches for the final 10 seconds off the fight.
“I thought we was going to keep tagging him until he wanted to go out, but he wanted to go all the way and I can work with that,” Holloway said. “He’s a warrior. It takes two to dance and he did it.”
According to stats from UFC.com, Holloway landed 147 significant strikes to 76 from Allen.
Allen landed the bigger shots, but the variety of strikes and precision with which Holloway landed made the fight clearly in his favor.
The Star-Advertiser scored the bout 48-47 in favor of Holloway, who is now one of 12 fighters to earn 20 UFC wins.
UFC President Dana White didn’t agree with Allen’s strategy in the fight.
“He came on too late. If he fought the way he fought in the fifth round in the third round and on he would have had a chance,” White said.
Holloway will now wait for the outcome of the expected unification title fight at 145 pounds between Volkanovski and Rodriguez.
Whatever happens after that, White once again reiterated his long-held stance that Holloway will never get to fight in his home state.
“If you think back to the days with me and the Fertitta brothers, we always wanted to do an event in Hawaii,” White said. “We just could never get a deal done in Hawaii. I don’t see it happening. You hear me, we’re going to Africa, we’re going to places we never imagined. We can’t get Hawaii done.”
