Max Holloway has opened up about his BMF title loss to Charles Oliveira, pointing to back of the head strikes as a factor.
Speaking with ESPN MMA ahead of UFC 329, where he faces Conor McGregor, Holloway brought the topic.
“With the Pereira thing going on and they talking about back of the heads or whatever. And then I seen Charles jump on that and I was like, ‘Brother, you just posted a picture of you. Like, go to his Instagram,'” Holloway said.
While clearly aware of the issue, Holloway was reluctant to make it the centerpiece of his explanation for the result. He acknowledged the opportunity was there for his opponent to take advantage, and that the referee did not step in.
“I’m not going to cry, complain about it, but we’re athletes,” he said. “He got caught. He got hit in the back of the head. When I was competing, people was complaining. I was like, go watch the match. I’m not going to say nothing. Go watch the match and tell me what you think.”
Holloway made clear he does not see complaints about in-match rule violations as compatible with the athlete’s code, even when those violations may have shaped the outcome.
“We can’t complain. You can’t blame it on one guy. I was in the situation, the opportunity presented itself, and people was taking it. The guy wasn’t calling it, but the guy was still doing it. At the end of the day, we’re athletes. We know what we signed up for. What are we complaining about? In the octagon, what happens, happens.”
Despite the pointed remarks about the back of the head strikes, Holloway also accepted personal responsibility for the loss, and he was candid about what bothered him most about how the match unfolded.
“It’s a loss. You can’t be mad at Charles because he went out there and he just did what he thought he had to do to win. Be mad at me all you want because I should have stopped him. I had my opportunities to go in there. I did it. He went out there, he fou ght a different game. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.”
Holloway also acknowledged how the nature of the performance clashed with the reputation of the belt itself.
He said, “Everybody keeps talking about how you felt because around the BMF belt there’s this certain aura. So much people were so used to that aura with the lineage of the belt, that’s why. And that wasn’t the match we got.”
Now focused on Conor McGregor, Holloway said he is not dwelling on the loss, noting it led to an opportunity he never expected.
