When the UFC unveiled its new championship belt design, Max Holloway began referring to the colored gems champions would receive for each successful title defense as “Soul Stones,” a reference to the six “Infinity Stones” Thanos needed to collect and affix to the Infinity Gauntlet in Marvel’s Avengers series.
Six months after losing the featherweight title to Alexander Volkanovski and a handful of days ahead of their championship rematch at UFC 251, the 28-year-old Hawaiian has reconsidered which role he has chosen to assume from the now completed series, which wrapped last spring.
“I remember I was Thanos and I was collecting some stones, but maybe I was on the wrong side,” he said with a laugh.