Ahead of UFC 245 title fight, Max Holloway says Andre Fili was toughest opponent to date

LAS VEGAS – It will probably come as a surprise to many, but Max Holloway’s toughest fight to date came well before he was a UFC champion.

In 2014, two fights into what became a 13-fight winning streak, a young Holloway (21-4 MMA, 17-4 UFC) took on Team Alpha Male’s Andre Fili at UFC 172.

It was a back-and-forth battle in which Holloway likely lost the first round and was taken down numerous times, but was able to turn things around in the second. Likely 1-1 headed into the third, Holloway showed his killer instinct by latching onto Fili’s neck to submit him with a guillotine choke.

For UFC featherweight champ Holloway, who at that point already had suffered losses to Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor in the UFC, and who lost to Poirier in an April rematch this year for the interim lightweight title, Fili was not the answer most expected.

But Holloway explained why.

“My toughest opponent to date was probably, I would say, Andre Fili,” Holloway said during Wednesday’s UFC 245 athlete panel at MGM Grand Resort & Casino. “And he’s probably the hardest puncher I faced, too. So I think Andre ‘Touchy’ Fili. That guy can crack. I know he’s a Samoan too – that’s probably why he hits so hard.”

After defeating Fili, Holloway won 11 in a row and captured the UFC interim featherweight title, then unified it. He’s yet to be beaten at 145 pounds since his unanimous decision loss to McGregor in 2013. Saturday, he looks to notch his third successful title defense when he takes on Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 245 co-main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.