Max Holloway may be one of the most decorated strikers in UFC history, but the former featherweight champion has a confession that might surprise fans: he had a chance to learn wrestling in high school and turned it down flat, all because he refused to put on a singlet.
Holloway opened up about the missed opportunity in an interview, laughing at his own younger self while reflecting on the decision.
“A bunch of my friends was trying to get me into wrestling, but I wasn’t about to be caught d3ad in a singlet dawg, are you crazy?” Holloway said. “At first I thought I was crazy, but now look at me. I’m at 30 something years old, I use tights to compete. Like what the h3ll, I should have just put on a damn singlet to learn wrestling.”
Holloway acknowledged the irony with good humor, noting that the very gear he once refused to be seen in is not so different from what he wears today inside the octagon. He even anticipated the response from fans watching.
“A lot of people that’s watching this right now, they’re gonna be in your comments and be like yeah, he should have did wrestling, because look what Oliveira did. So these guys are ridiculous bro,” he said, referencing his recent BMF title loss to Charles Oliveira.
Some coaches who weighed in on the discussion said they have seen this play out firsthand many times. High school wrestling programs have actually allowed alternative uniforms, including rash guards and shorts, since around the 2017-2018 season under NFHS rules.
Yet several coaches noted that when they tell reluctant recruits about the alternative, those same athletes tend to come up with a different reason not to join.
“We offer shorts and rash guards as a uniform, and the guys who claim that they won’t wear a singlet still don’t come out. It’s just an excuse,” wrote one coach in the online thread.
Another echoed the sentiment, saying that in their experience, offering the two-piece option has not meaningfully increased participation numbers.
“Every kid who has said they didn’t want to wrestle because of the singlet had some other excuse when we told them there is an alternative uniform,” they wrote.
Holloway’s story resonated with former wrestlers who remembered their own hesitation.
“I had been nervous and embarrassed to wear a singlet, and I got even more nervous and embarrassed because hot girls were coming to watch our meets,” one person wrote. “Then one of them told me they were coming to see us and they thought boys in singlets were hot, and my mindset shifted 180 degrees in that moment.”
