Max (Blessed) Holloway isn’t going to catch a pass or score a touchdown this season, but he may help the Eskimos win the Grey Cup.
The 27-year-old MMA fighter, who has won a record 15 UFC featherweight matches, talked about what it takes to become a champion during a visit to the Eskimos locker room at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium this week.
“He’s an inspiration in the fact that he’s a champion, but he’s also been beaten multiple times,” said veteran fullback Calvin McCarty, 34, who is about to head into his 13th CFL season. “The tough part when you get knocked down is getting back up. But you learn more from losing than winning. You hate to lose more than you love to win sometimes. I’m not saying that’s me, personally, but losing can be a big motivator.
“Any champion or anybody who has been to the top and can’t really tell you what they learned from their mistakes isn’t a true champion,” McCarty added.
It wasn’t just a fun meet-and-greet with Holloway for the Eskimos, who are currently in the process of trying to assemble a team of players with the skills and abilities to play at a high level while also finding players willing to work hard as a team to battle adversity and overcome challenges.
“The guys who have won know what it takes,” said place-kicker Sean Whyte, 33, an 11-year CFL veteran. “It’s awesome for the young guys who are trying to buy into our situation here and be a part of the culture in the locker room to hear what he says about a team and what it takes to be a champion.
“Our veterans understand that it doesn’t matter what the coaches teach,” Whyte continued. “We have to buy in. Even if you don’t agree with it, buy in and let’s just embrace it and go with it and let’s all be on the same page. That’s what it’s all about.
“Some people fight it. Those are the guys you don’t want on your team.”
Whyte said Eskimos General Manager and Vice-President of Football Operations Brock Sunderland “did an unbelievable job this year of bringing in some great teammates.”
“They’re emphasizing ‘team’ and being together, and I love every second of it,” Whyte said. “You can see this is a tight group. When I got here in 2015, I walked into the locker room halfway through the season, and I went, ‘This is a different situation.’ I can walk into this room now and think the exact same thing. This is a different situation; this is a special group.”
The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is part of the younger generation of players in the Eskimos training camp.
“I know a lot of guys in there who are big fight fans and over the moon to see somebody come in and to hear those words of inspiration from a champion,” McCarty said.
“A bunch of football players, a bunch of meatheads, listening to a champion of the world at fighting? Yeah, they’re going to listen up,” said starting quarterback Trevor Harris. “When he was talking, we had a lot of guys whose ears perked up, so it was really fun to hear what he had to say, the preparation that he does and the meticulousness he has with his training.
“He’s somebody who knows a lot and goes through a lot of adversity, who puts his body through what he does in a way that we speak the same language.”
Harris, who will sit out Friday’s pre-season game against the Blue Bombers at Winnipeg’s IG Field (6:30 p.m. on 630 CHED, and streamed through the Blue Bombers website) while third-year backup Danny O’Brien and former Hamilton Tiger-Cat/Toronto Argonaut Logan Kilgore battle it out for the No. 2 spot on the depth chart.
The Eskimos will leave their entire anticipated defensive starting group in Edmonton and most of their offensive starters as they assess the remaining players to determine which ones to keep and which ones to let go by the end of next week. The only exceptions on offence are starting wide receivers, DaVaris Daniels and Kenny Stafford, international offensive tackles Tommie Draheim and Colin Kelly plus international offensive lineman Travis Bond, who shifts from left guard to right guard with Matt O’Donnell not dressing.
Whyte, punter Hugh O’Neill and long-snapper Ryan King will all play while Jean-Simon Roy draws the start at centre and 2018 draft pick Godfrey Onyeka starts at field (wide-side) cornerback.
“I’m a firm believer that everybody’s better than us in some way and that we’re always learning,” said Harris, who was reminded of his father, Tom, during Holloway’s speech.
“It’s different, but … he’s wired in the same way as my dad,” Harris explained. “When you have that sort of warrior mentality, and you go about your work ethic, your day, your business, whatever it is, it’s all a mindset. Whether you’re a construction worker, a football player, a UFC fighter, whatever you are, you can go about it with that warrior mentality that you’re going to go out and get better. You’re going to go ‘attack mode’ every single day and always apply pressure to your competitors – to whatever job you’re doing – and you can tell he has the same mindset as my dad of ‘you want to step up.’
“He said, ‘Birds fly, fish swim and I fight. That’s what I do.’ Yeah, that’s kind of how my dad’s wired.”
Harris’s father is a blue-collar construction worker who used to go to the nearby Marion Correctional Institute with a couple of friends to fight inmates once a week “for fun,” according to Trevor.
“He fits the mould of the tough guy, but if you met him, you’d never know,” Trevor said about his dad. “He’s just a super nice guy. He just loves his family, loves working, and he loved fighting back in the day.
“Because of that, he told me when I started playing quarterback when I was 10 that he was really disappointed in me because he’s like, ‘quarterbacks are wimps.’ He said if you promise me you’ll never lay on the field, I’ll let you play quarterback. I said, ‘Promise.’ So if I’m laying on the field, it’s a bad thing.”
McCarty said most people who watch UFC consider it an individual sport, but Holloway talked about the team behind him that helps get him ready to fight – his trainers, nutritionists, family.
“There’s a lot of correlation between what he does and what we do as a team,” said McCarty. “Like he says, when he gets in the ring, and he lets it go, that’s all the work of not just himself, but the team and the people behind him who help motivate and help push him to train and get out there and work.”
Holloway, who set UFC records for most significant strikes in a round (134) and in one fight (290) on Dec. 8 at Toronto, lost his last fight in April when he stepped up in class to the lightweight division.
“Just to hear those words and to know that in eight weeks, he’s going to be in the ring battling (UFC 240 at Edmonton’s Rogers Place on July 27), there’s a lot of adversity to overcome,” McCarty said.
The Eskimos are also dealing with a lot of adversity – having played their first pre-season game one week into training camp and both pre-season games within six days of each other.
“Training camp is a grind,” McCarty said. “It’s not easy. Just take it day-by-day and work hard and keep your eye on the prize – but not too far ahead – and stay focused. So you can learn a lot from him.”
Whyte could also relate to Holloway’s speech.
“It’s exactly the same as a football player,” he said. “You’re going to go through a lot of adversity. You’re going to get knocked down. At the beginning of my career, when I was a rookie, I made a lot of mistakes. I got chased out of Montreal pretty much because I missed a few kicks … or just mostly important kicks.
“I just knew after I made those mistakes, I knew what I had to do for that to never happen again. And it’s going to happen again. And I’ve been a champion before. And we’ve been knocked down. And now I can come back and, hopefully, get another (championship) this year.”
Holloway not only talked to the Eskimos in the locker room but also took pictures with them afterwards on The Brick Field.
“It was pretty cool to touch (Holloway’s championship) belt,” said Whyte. “Growing up, I always wanted to touch one of those belts. I even got a fake one at home for board games that I win. But it’s cool actually to touch that belt. That’s off the bucket list for sure. I’ve always wanted to feel a UFC title belt. It’s pretty sweet.”
Whyte was shocked to discover how heavy the title belt was.
“I don’t know if it’s pure gold, but it’s a beautiful belt,” he said. “I didn’t want to be a fanboy and go up to him and bug him, but I’m like, ‘If I don’t go and touch the belt, I’m going to hate myself for the rest of my life.’ I don’t know when I’m going to touch a UFC championship belt.”