Max Holloway shocked the mixed martial arts (MMA) world this past weekend when he defeated Jose Aldo in his own home country of Brazil via third round TKO to unify the featherweight titles and solidify himself as the best 145-pound fighter in the world.
Although he struggled in the first two rounds against “Scarface,” Holloway rallied in the third round with a beautiful 1-2 combo that dropped Aldo down to the canvas, prompting “Blessed” to swarm the Brazilian with a barrage of ground-and-pound before the ref waved the action off.
Once Holloway returned to his home state of Hawaii, he was greeted by a plethora of family and fans at the Honolulu International Airport – and it was quite the sight:
Now THAT'S a homecoming‼️ Hawaii welcomes their NEW featherweight champ @BlessedMMA & @YMedeiros home today ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/QDCms20UIY
— #UFCPittsburgh (@ufc) June 6, 2017
Holloway then returned to his hometown of Waianae, where everyone went nuts after the new 145-pound champ stepped out of his bus showing off the gold:
“I was like, ‘Don’t cry, Max. You’re a fighter. Don’t cry.’ But I’m joking,” Holloway said. “Just overwhelmed, you know. We had something big inside there when we came off the plane. I was tripping how big that was. They were like, ‘This is nothing. The (University of Hawaii) football players is out there.’ I was tripping out. It’s surreal. You can’t put it in words. You got to be here to witness. This is one of those things you can’t put it on these cameras. You got to be here to witness and feel the energy.”
H/T MMA Junkie for the transcriptions
