Max Holloway’s previously unknown connection to the biggest (literally) Power Slap star has been revealed ahead of UFC 308.
Holloway will try to win back the featherweight belt from new champion Ilia Topuria in the main event of the UFC’s latest pay-per-view show in Abu Dhabi on Saturday night.
Two days earlier, ‘Da Crazy Hawaiian’ – real name Layne Viernes – will face ‘Dumpling’ – real name Vasilii Kamotskii – in the main event of Dana White’s Power Slap 9 card, which takes place in the same region as UFC 308.
Ahead of the two big events, the 384lb super heavyweight slap star has revealed he and Holloway were high school classmates who didn’t always get along.
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Da Crazy Hawaiian tells funny story about Max Holloway
During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, ‘Da Crazy Hawaiian’ revealed that he went to high school with Holloway before admitting that they once had a verbal confrontation in class.
Viernes has over 200lbs on the legendary featherweight fighter – and probably had more at the time – but that didn’t stop ‘Blessed’ from putting him in his place.
“I went down to a new class,” ‘Da Crazy Hawaiian’ explained. “I was pretty much a teacher’s pet. I came in the class high one day, and I was just talking too much.
“Max Holloway, as small as he was at the time, he told me to shut the hell up. Straight up.
“We had a few words exchanged and nothing came of it.
“So, I respect him for that, ever since that day. And now he’s a legend.
“I’ll take it. I’ll shut up for him.”
Da Crazy Hawaiian’s next opponent made Dana White fall in love with slap fighting
‘Da Crazy Hawaiian’ lost his slap fighting debut in March 2022 as he suffered a third-round knockout loss during an event bizarrely hosted by Logan Paul.
Since then, he’s been signed to Power Slap, picked up three consecutive victories, and become the promotion’s inaugural super heavyweight champion.
Viernes worked in road construction for 12 years but his whole life changed after watching a video of his next opponent in a slap fighting contest.
He told PowerSlap.com: “I watched a Russian named ‘Dumpling’ on YouTube and I said to myself, ‘I can do it better’ and since then, I knew if ever given the chance to, I’d be the greatest that ever did it! I started to become known for slapping people to sleep since right before COVID hit the USA.”
‘Dumpling’ is essentially the godfather of slap fighting and White is extremely excited about promoting him after also becoming a fan of the controversial sport by watching his fights.
“When I first started seeing this stuff coming out of Russia and Poland, ‘Dumpling’ was the first guy that I started to watch,” White said before Kamotskii won his Power Slap debut by KO in June.
“He is absolutely the guy that got me into it. So we ended up signing him and I’m looking forward to seeing him compete.“
White clearly liked what he saw as ‘Dumpling’ has been immediately thrown into a title fight main event against the best big man the UFC boss has on his roster.
You best not blink when these two massive men start trading blows.