#1 ranked UFC Featherweight Max Holloway is making some changes to his training camp in order to save his brain. The former champ plans on running his camp similar to his last one against Featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski which means no sparring.

“Not Sparring During Last Camp Really Opened My Eyes.” Max Holloway

Max Holloway is known for his significant strikes. Holloway currently holds the record for most significant strikes landed during a UFC fight with 2173. The record comes from years and years of training for fights, but Holloway is learning to spend less time sparring and worrying about his ego and more time learning the fundamentals with his team. During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, “Blessed” went into detail on the transition of less sparring and less injuries with the new plans…

“I really loved how the last camp I didn’t spar. It opened my eyes. I get injured sparring a lot before fights. I felt great going inside that fight without sparring. Sparring is like an ego trip. I understand you got to do something but you can figure out different ways to move and get it done. During the whole training camp, it helped a lot to actually put our priorities straight. I got to take out some things, I got to add a little more things. It was just changing up the recipe and the last one, I thought went pretty well. We’re kind of sticking to it and we’ll see how this one goes. I want to be a guy who, third grade math is already hard, so I can only imagine if I was getting punched in the head and trying to help Mini Blessed.”

Max Holloway

After losing back to back championship bouts, it’s good to see Holloway hit the reset button and focus on his future outside the octagon. I’m in no way saying he is no longer a title contender. I’m saying getting hit hundreds of times to prepare for a fight in which you’re REALLY getting hit hundreds of times doesn’t make sense.