The entire state of Hawaii had a rough morning on Saturday.
Residents and tourists received an emergency alert on their smartphones and televisions just past 8:00 a.m. local time. It read: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”
As expected, panic set in very quickly throughout all eight main islands. But luckily, it ended up being a false alarm, people in Hawaii learned 15 to 30 minutes after the initial warning. Hawaii Governor David Ige told CNN that an employee “pushed the wrong button” during a “standard procedure at the change over of a shift.”
Hours later, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway, a Waianae native, managed to make light of the situation. (Before learning that the alert was a false alarm, “Blessed” was concerned like everyone else.)
Holloway shared an edited image of him dodging a missile, presumably sent from North Korea. The image was first posted by Instagram user @wearhibred.
“Hawaii I got us,” Holloway, a fan favorite, wrote.
If a future early-morning alert isn’t a false alarm like Saturday’s, Hawaii can just count on Holloway to save the state.
Holloway is coming off his first title defense, a third-round TKO of Jose Aldo at UFC 218 last month. He captured the title last June in Brazil when he stopped Aldo the first time.
The 26-year-old faces Frankie Edgar in the UFC 222 main event on March 3 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.