Virtual workouts have UFC 251’s Max Hollway ready for foe

Workers around the globe have been forced to find ways to adapt to life in a pandemic by getting their jobs done remotely. Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway was no exception.

The 28-year-old Hawaiian says he conducted his full training camp through a videoconferencing app, coming in physical contact with his team for the first time at the airport en route to Abu Dhabi where he will fight Alex Volkanovski in a rematch for the belt at UFC 251 on “Fight Island.”

Holloway was an early advocate for stay-at-home orders in his home state and even made a public service announcement video urging fellow Hawaiians to do so.

“I couldn’t be a hypocrite,” he says of training remotely and not sparring at all during camp. “I know everybody’s blowing their mind, tripping out. … I’ve been fighting since I was 16. That’s a long time. I did a lot of sparring in that time. In the beginning of my career, all I really did was spar. I had four title fights — not four fights, four title fights — in a matter of 12 months. This is another fight, at the end of the day.”

The single father says his son Rush was his main motivation. Holloway says he would have been furious if someone around him wasn’t doing the right things and he ended up bringing the coronavirus home.

Now he’s flying halfway around the world to a carefully constructed “bubble” where everyone who enters is subject to strict health and safety protocols.

Holloway hopes the reward for such a sacrifice is to reclaim the belt he lost to Volkanovski in December when he dropped a unanimous decision at T-Mobile Arena.

Volkanovski isn’t buying Holloway’s story, though.

The champion said his team went through the government in New Zealand to get an exception that allowed him to train with his team.

“You need that contact training. You need it,” Volkanovski said. “I’m sure he wouldn’t put himself in that position. He wants to take that belt. I’m sure he wants his belt back, and having a camp without training partners, it just doesn’t make sense. And if that’s the case, maybe he doesn’t care. Maybe he’s just fighting for the money. … Maybe he doesn’t care about this division anymore, I don’t know. If that’s the case, I really don’t think he’s committed to this fight like he should be.”

While Volkanovski has the belt, Holloway dominates the featherweight record book. He’s 14-1 in his last 15 fights in the weight class and has the record with 14 wins at 145 pounds in the UFC. He also has the mark with eight knockouts in the division and has wins over four former champions.

It’s a rematch Volkanovski publicly advocated for despite owning the victory over Holloway. It provides the champion an opportunity to silence any doubters who may not have quite believed his victory reflected a true changing of the guard in the division.

“At the end of the day, I got nothing to prove,” Holloway said. “Is he talking like a champion? At the end of the day, I feel like he’s attacking me. He called me out to fight. That (sounds like) something a challenger does, doesn’t it? I don’t know. This guy has been saying stuff. He’s the one who’s been saying he’s got a chip on his shoulder about something. He’s ready to prove something.

“In my eyes, you’re the champ. What are you trying to prove? … I’m not trying to prove anything to (anyone). I knew I was the champ. I know I’m a champion. I carry myself as a champion, belt or no belt. People see me as a champion, so I’m going to go out there, fight my fight, have the fight of my life, and have fun.”

The bout is part of a pay-per-view event headlined by a welterweight title bout between Jorge Masvidal and champion Kamaru Usman.

The bout will take place early Sunday morning in Abu Dhabi to accommodate the normal North American start time of 7 p.m. PDT on Saturday night.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.