“It wasn’t just another fight,” he said, reflecting on his first trip to Singapore. “I was down two fights. You’re fighting a new guy making his debut, and it doesn’t look good if you lose, so, at the end of the day, I knew I had to do something — not only win, but put a mark on it, and that’s what I did. That started everything back in 2014.
“We’re here now, years later — I’m only 31, turn 32 at the end of the year,” he added, laughing. “People keep forgetting and I gotta keep reminding people. I’m a veteran in a lot of you guys’ eyes because I’ve been here for a minute, but another long run is on my mind.”
Just as there was a heaviness to his voice and visage as he spoke about the devastation at home in Hawaii, there is an edge to Holloway as he addresses his current place in the division and the way fans and media have framed his most recent outings.
Pre-Order UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland
Three consecutive losses to reigning featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski have left the ex-titleholder in a precarious position, especially given that the third meeting was the most convincing of the series.
Rarely do fighters get a third crack at someone that has already bested them twice, and seldom does a fighter that is down 0-3 in a particular matchup get another shot, even if the first two were ultra-competitive, and that reality left many questioning if Holloway’s best days were behind him heading into his mid-April clash with Arnold Allen in Kansas City.
Many pundits picked against “Blessed,” but the divisional stalwart did what he had done in his previous 16 featherweight contests against someone not holding the last name Volkanovski, boxing up Allen en route to a unanimous decision victory that served to remind people that he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
