Andre Fili isn’t completely ruling out a Max Holloway-style ‘point-down’ challenge in the future.
Tonight, 38-fight veteran Fili picked up his 13th UFC victory when he defeated featherweight prospect-killer Christian Rodriguez on the main card of UFC Vegas 109.
It was a competitive contest across three rounds of action, with ‘Touchy’ Fili scraping out a split decision on the judges’ scorecards.
Before the final bell sounded, Rodriguez pointed down to the canvas, offering to stand and trade strikes in the pocket to close out the fight like current BMF champion Max Holloway did against Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and Ricardo Lamas.
Fili, a former foe of Holloway’s, opted not to against Rodriguez, giving his reaction to the point-down after the fact.
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Andre Fili says he wouldn’t accept Max Holloway’s point-down challenge in hypothetical rematch
In his post-fight interview, Fili revealed what was going through his head when Rodriguez tried to wave him on like Holloway.
Fili also mentioned that nobody can do the point-down correctly except for Holloway.
“I said, no, f— you,” Fili said of Rodriguez’s point-down attempt at the UFC Vegas 109 post-fight press conference (via MMA Junkie).
“I’m not doing that…”
“I’ve had lots of fights where I could prove that I’m tough. I think that fight was exciting.
I hope it was an exciting fight, but I don’t need to stand there and point at the ground.
“First of all, no one does it right… Max is the only person that does it right. Where you plant your feet and you swing.
“And I’m not saying I’ll never do that, but I’ll probably never do that,” Fili continued.
“If I ever fought Max Holloway again, which I’m not gunning for that. I love Max and I really have a lot of love for him, but if I ever fought Max Holloway again and he pointed the ground, I would say the same thing I said tonight…
“No, f— off, leave me alone,” said Fili.
Fili fought and lost to Holloway by third-round submission (guillotine choke) at UFC 172 in 2014.
Ricardo Lamas joked he wants 10% commission for first Max Holloway point-down
Newer UFC fans might believe UFC 300 last year was the first time Holloway pointed down to the UFC canvas (against Justin Gaethje), but it wasn’t.
In actuality, it was former UFC title challenger Ricardo Lamas who accepted Holloway’s challenge way back at UFC 199 in 2016, standing and trading with the future BMF champion until the final bell sounded.
Speaking to Bloody Elbow, Lamas claims to ‘coaxed’ it out of Holloway in the third round.
Holloway has capitalized on the signature by making his brand’s logo a hand with a finger pointing down.
Lamas hilariously said he wants his 10% commission for being a part of the first one nearly a decade ago.
“It was something that you can’t pull off without both of those fighters,” Lamas said earlier this week.
“I’m still waiting for my 10% commission off that,” Lamas joked.
“Because Max, he did a great job of marketing that and just taking it and running with it and like, continuing to do it in the rest of his fights. It paid off…
“UFC 300, you couldn’t have asked for a better main event for the BMF title to end that way, and then him scoring the knockout literally in the last second of the fight.
“It wouldn’t have been there without the fight with me and him. So, I think UFC needs to put that one in the Hall of Fame,” Lamas said of his UFC 199 fight with Holloway.