Despite participating in the main event Charles Oliveira Holloway, a 2-1 favorite, had little success. Oliveira came out of the gate with hard calf kicks and hard punches and set up an early takedown, and he never let up on the pressure.
Holloway was routinely put in bad positions and forced to play defense. That means the Hawaiian’s famous book is rarely thrown away.
For most of the 25 minutes, Holloway was controlled and beaten. It’s one of the most one-sided losses of his entire professional career, but "Blessed” doesn’t emphasize it.
Holloway took to social media to make no excuses for the loss and promised to get back to work straight away.
“The highest of highs and the lowest of lows,” Holloway wrote in X. "Saturday night was not my night. I’m sorry for disappointing all my family, friends and fans. Shout out to Olivera for doing his job. All class, I have nothing but love for him. There are no excuses on this side and there never will be. I’ve been here before I knew what I had to do to get back to where I want to be. It’s not over yet. See you at the top.”
The “Do Bronx” loss hampers the former pair, with Holloway coming off a respectable 155-pound win over Justin Gaethje. Dustin Poirier. Even at the age of 34, there are still plenty of notable potential opponents for Holloway, such as Arman Tsarukyan and Paddy Pimblett. Unfortunately, this loss definitely hurt his standing in the lightweight title division as a whole.
Let’s hope Holloway gets a chance to bounce back in the coming months.
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