Max Holloway may be only 20 years old but he put in a very assured performance tonight at UFC 150 as he got the better of Justin Lawrence on the feet before finishing him off with vicious body shots.
As expected both fighters were keen to engage in the stand-up battle in the opening round. Lawrence was looking a little busier at first, throwing a variety of kicks, but Holloway was quickly finding his range with punches.
A low blow to the groin by Holloway forces a brief stoppage and Lawrence is sporting a cut above his right eye from a hook.
They get back to it after Lawrence lands a brief takedown and Holloway seems to be finding his groove, timing his punches well and further opening up that cut, leaving the right side of Lawrence’s face streaked with blood.
An in all it’s a relatively even first round though and it starts off in familarly similar fashion in the second with Lawrence favaoring his kicks while Holloway was more focused on punches.
It’s Holloway’s shots that seem a little more effective though and as the round progresses Lawrence starts to favor his hands too as he tries to match him. He also tried to mix things up with a takedown, but Holloway did a good job of shutting the attempt down.
As the round drew near to a close Holloway still seemed to be edging it, and things got even better for him when he landed a hard knee to the body of Lawrence during an exchange that forced him to back up.
Holloway pressed forward and sensing that Lawrence may be hurt he ripped a two piece combination to his body, and the second of those shots landed hard to the liver and floored his opponent.
Immediately Holloway followed up with rapid-fire strikes on the ground and that forced the stoppage with 4.49mins of the second round gone.
All in all another very assured striking performance from Holloway, impressive for a 20 year-old and he’s certainly one to watch at 145lbs.
