Andre Fili isn’t completely ruling out a Max Holloway-style ‘point-down’ challenge in the longer term.
Tonight, 38-fight veteran Fili picked up his thirteenth UFC victory when he defeated featherweight prospect-killer Christian Rodriguez on the major card of UFC Vegas 109.
It was a competitive contest across three rounds of motion, with ‘Touchy’ Fili scraping out a split decision on the judges’ scorecards.
Before the ultimate bell sounded, Rodriguez pointed all the way down to the canvas, offering to face and trade strikes within the pocket to shut 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 to not against Rodriguez, giving his response to the point-down after the very fact.
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 no one can do the point-down appropriately aside from Holloway.
“I said, no, f— you,” Fili said of Rodriguez’s point-down attempt on the UFC Vegas 109 post-fight press conference (via MMA Junkie).
“I’m not doing that…”
“I’ve had a lot of fights where I could prove that I’m tough. I feel that fight was exciting.
I hope it was an exciting fight, but I don’t must stand there and point at the bottom.
“To start with, nobody does it right… Max is the one person who does it right. Where you plant your feet and also you swing.
“And I’m not saying I’ll never try this, but I’ll probably never try this,” Fili continued.
“If I ever fought Max Holloway again, which I’m not gunning for that. I like Max and I actually have quite a lot of love for him, but when I ever fought Max Holloway again and he pointed the bottom, I’d say the identical 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 consider UFC 300 last yr was the primary time Holloway pointed all the way down to the UFC canvas (against Justin Gaethje), however it wasn’t.
Genuinely, 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 longer term BMF champion until the ultimate bell sounded.
Chatting with Bloody Elbow, Lamas claims to ‘coaxed’ it out of Holloway within 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 an element of the primary one nearly a decade ago.
“It was something which you can’t pull off without each 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 fantastic job of selling that and just taking it and running with it and like, continuing to do it in the remaining of his fights. It paid off…
“UFC 300, you couldn’t have asked for a greater major event for the BMF title to finish that way, after which him scoring the knockout literally within the last second of the fight.
“It wouldn’t have been there without the fight with me and him. So, I feel UFC needs to place that one within the Hall of Fame,” Lamas said of his UFC 199 fight with Holloway.