Max Holloway: UFC 317 headliner up in the air, Charles Oliveira 'thrives' in underdog role
Max Holloway warns everyone not to count out Charles Oliveira at UFC 317.
Former UFC champions Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) and Ilia Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) square off for the vacant lightweight title in Saturday's main event (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) has competed against both fighters. He scored a first-round TKO of Oliveira due to injury in a UFC Fight Night main event in August 2015, and was knocked out for the first time in his career against Topuria at UFC 308.
The BMF champion knows first hand how much power Topuria possesses, but is having a hard time picking a winner.
"If Ilia gets a finish or a knockout, it wouldn't surprise me," Holloway said on his YouTube channel. "But if Charles wins with a submission or even a knockout finish of his own, it doesn't surprise me. This fight is super up in the air. A lot of people are counting Charles Oliveira out, but that's when he just thrives on being the underdog. How many times have we counted this man out, and he somehow found a way to win? From my perspective, this fight is going to be decided probably in the first three or four minutes of the first round.
"Oliveira is going to get touched. Is Ilia going to touch him with something that puts him out cold or is going to hurt him, and then he somehow finds a way to fight back? That's the main thing with this fight. If I was a betting man on this fight, and Charles Oliveira is the underdog, I mean, Charles Oliveira is one of the best fighters in the world to put money on as an underdog. That's all I'm saying. I'm not really picking a winner here. I'm not going to be surprised if Ilia wins by knockout, and I'm not going to be surprised if Charles somehow pulls it off and wins by a finish or a knockout, too. This fight should be super fun."
According to DraftKings, Oliveira is a big +330 underdog against former UFC featherweight champion Topuria, who's a -425 favorite.
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