Jerome Max Holloway, nicknamed "The Blessed", is a young mixed martial artist and reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion. He was born on December 4, 1991 in the US state of Hawaii, the city of Waianae, has English and Samoan roots. Now he is 26 years old, he is tall enough for his category - 1.80 meters, his weight is 65 kilograms, and his arm span is 1.75 meters.
Biography and career
Until 2010, Holloway was a handyman, subsequently choosing sports as his job. Since childhood, Jerome has been involved in kickboxing. At the age of 19, he began to try himself in Thai boxing, also practiced ju-jitsu in parallel and performed in mixed fights. At the beginning of his career, "The Blessed One" fought in his homeland. In the third professional fight, Max became the champion of Hawaii, and on March 12, 2011, he defeated the famous Harris Sarmento.
On February 4, 2012, he is the youngest fighter to debut in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Max fought Dustin Poirier, but the fight for the Blessed One was a failure. Failure did not stop the fighter, he continued to participate in various championships and tournaments. In 2012, he has three successful fights for him, defeating Pat Schilling, Justin Lawrence and Leonard Garia.
In a fight on May 25, 2013, Dennis Bermudez defeated Holloway by split decision, but this was not his last defeat. 4 months later, Max competed at UFC Fight Night 26 in Boston against Conor McGregor. The Irishman was the winner by unanimous decision. Of course, these defeats had a negative effect on his place in the standings, but he did not give up.
On January 4, 2014, the endless stream of victories of the "Blessed One" began. Behind him, he left Will Chope, Clay Collade, Cole Miller, Charles Oliver and many others, until 2016 the Hawaiian fighter had 8 fights, winning each. One of the decisive battles was the confrontation between Anthony Pettis and Jerome Max Holloway, in which the second came out the winner. Max was named interim Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion.
In June 2017, the first meeting took place in the ring between Jose Aldo and Max Holloway. The fight took place in the homeland of Aldo, the first two rounds of the Brazilian held up better than Max, but the third round of the fight put everything in its place: Holloway was named the new champion. The title defense was supposed to take place in a fight with Frankie Edgar, the fight did not take place due to his injury. He was replaced by Jose Aldo, and on December 2, 2017, the second battle between Aldo and Holloway took place, in which Max managed to successfully defend his title. He is currently the reigning UFC Featherweight Champion.
Personal life
Max's wife is a Hawaiian model Kaiman Paaluha. In 2012, the couple got married, in the same year they had a child. Holloway considers the birthday of his son Rush the best day of his life, on the same day he learned about the signing of a contract with a leading fighting promotion.
Family and love are the main things in Max's life. Already now Rush says that he wants to be like his father - a fighter, Max himself sees a doctor in his son.
