Max Holloway and Yair Rodriguez go head to head in a 5 round main event this Saturday. The opening odds are Holloway a -750 and Rodriguez a + 450. Holloway is a giant favorite in this fight for many reasons some consider him the greatest featherweight of all time. Holloway is also more active and could sit around and wait for a trilogy against the champion Alexander Volkanovski but he decided to take this fight against Yair. Holloway is also a big favorite because of the records he broke in his last fight against Calvin Kattar. Most significant strikes landed in a fight in UFC history 445, Most significant strikes attempted in UFC history 744. Holloway seems to be hitting a new peak and Yair might be in for it. Holloway lost back to back against Volkanovski but many people including myself think Holloway won the second bout. He bounced back with a tremendous win over Kattar and stated he did not spar for that fight or his last fight against Volkanovski. Holloway must be growing into a new form and not sparring must be what has helped him look so good in his last fight. Yair Rodriguez has not fought in two years, his last bout was against Jeremy Stephens back in October 2019. He has very impressive wins over the likes of Chan Sung Jung, Dan Hooker, and Andre Fili but even with these spectacular wins he still is not active enough especially being ranked 3 in the featherweight division. I feel like the division is passing him by and if he loses this Saturday the UFC might just forget about him since there’s so many new up and coming stars and prospects in the featherweight division. Due to his lack of activity he’s in a tough spot and fighting Holloway, the number 1 contender after not fighting for 2 years is very dangerous.
Max Holloway is going to pour on the pressure and walk down Yair and by doing that Yair is not going to be able to throw his phenomenal kicks which leaves him to fight in a phone booth where Holloway strives. He’s going to use his footwork to slide out the way of Rodriguez’s unorthodox attacks. If Rodriguez cannot stay on the outside and pick apart Holloway with his kicks and elbows he’s going to get caught up in Holloway’s rhythm and just be a punching bag. We’ve seen countless times of fighters trying to fight at the same pace as Holloway and just fold under pressure. If Rodriguez is able to set the tone for the first two rounds and have more output than Holloway he’ll be able to take the lead by points. If Holloway sets the tone early there’s no coming back from it and if Rodriguez senses he’s losing he’s going to forget his game plan and fight reckless which will leave him open for some nasty counterstrikes. This fight can be fireworks or just another display of Max Holloway being levels ahead of his opponent.
BIASMMA 