On December 8, in the main event of UFC 231 in Toronto, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway defended his title with a dominant defeat of formerly undefeated challenger Brian Ortega.

As if Holloway’s victory over Ortega wasn’t already impressive enough, a fan on Twitter has pointed out that the featherweight champ seemed to be giving his foe advice in the middle of the fight. Mid-way through the fourth round, Holloway can be seen hoisting Ortega’s arm upward, seemingly reminding him to keep his hands up.

See this crazy moment below.

https://twitter.com/RobBrownBetting/status/1081933132264337408

At this time, neither Max Holloway nor Brian Ortega has commented on this interesting mid-fight exchange, but hopefully, one of them can provide some clarity on it soon. If Holloway is indeed tutoring his foe in the middle of the fight, well, his performance deserves even more applause than we initially thought.

At present, Brian Ortega is healing up from injuries he sustained in the fight. Max Holloway, meanwhile, is looking ahead to his next challenge. While the featherweight division is till full of fresh challengers for the champ, such as Alexander Volkanovski, Renato Moicano, Frankie Edgar and Yair Rodriguez, there’s recently been ample discussion surrounding his potential move up to the lightweight division.

Even UFC President Dana White is hoping the featherweight champion will make this jump.

“Max is a grown man and we need to talk,” Dana White said of Max Holloway (via MMA Fighting). “But I’d like to see Max go to ‘55 now. I think that the guy’s 27 going on 28 years old, he’s in the prime of his life, never looked better. Continues to improve with every single fight that he’s in and I think he’s done everything he can do at ‘45.”

Do you think Max Holloway was offering Brian Ortega technical advice in the middle of their fight?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 1/6/2019.