All About Max Holloway's Stunning Wife Alessa Quizon

MMA fighter Max Holloway has scored big in and out of the Octagon. The former UFC Featherweight champion has been married to Alessa Quizon since April 2022, proposing to her in November 2020. The stunning Quizon is a former professional surfer from Hawaii, an attribute that contributes to their happy marriage. "She understands the things we gotta do for our work," he told Sportsmanor in 2022. Holloway and Quizon met in February 2020, and nine months later, they were engaged. 

Quizon started surfing professionally when she was 11, though she had been hitting the waves since she was 4. "My dad taught me. Surfing's been in my family for two or three generations now. There's no other feeling in the world like riding a wave," she told Into the Gloss. Her biggest inspiration was her sister, who's 10 years her senior. "She would compete in all sorts of contests, traveling the world. Watching her, I just knew that I wanted to do the same thing," she explained. 

Quizon stopped competing professionally in November 2022, putting an end to one of the biggest chapters of her life, but she's grateful it lasted as long as it did. "I am entering this amazing new chapter in life of being a wife, a mother, and a woman with different dreams," she wrote on Instagram. That doesn't mean she stopped surfing, though. In fact, the ocean continues to be her home. "To surf more, that's my New Year's resolution," she noted in a January 2024 Instagram post. But now, Quizon is focusing on her family.

When Alessa Quizon married Max Holloway, she became stepmother to his son Rush, then 10. However, she was set to become more than that. In August 2025, Quizon became his legal parent when she joined the list of prominent people who've adopted kids. "You never deserved to be neglected and have to pick up those broken pieces on your own. You never deserved to be heartbroken. You never deserved that kind of love. That's why I promise to always be there for you," she wrote on Instagram to celebrate the adoption.

In his own Instagram post, Holloway offered insight into the difficult process that involved a five-year custody battle with his ex-wife, Kaimana Pa'aluhi, from whom he separated in 2014 and divorced in 2017. "It's a big win for the Holloway's. But more importantly Rush finally got to choose and keep the mom that he deserves," he wrote. While Holloway hasn't addressed the particulars of what went down between him and Rush's biological mother, it became clear it was pretty complicated when Pa'aluhi responded to the court ruling.

In a scathing social media post (via X), Pa'aluhi implied he hadn't wanted to put Rush up for adoption. "I battled relentlessly while my name and my motherhood was dragged through the mud," she wrote. "And now, they boast about their cruelty." Not a lot is known about the situation, but it looks like Quizon has fully embraced her new role. In fact, while celebrating their wedding anniversary, she joked that Rush was a big motivator in her marriage. "Main reason why I said yes," she wrote on Instagram.  

Alessa Quizon's dedication to Rush shows just how important family is to her. And that didn't start with marriage. The Quizons are a tight bunch, something Alessa is grateful for. After all, it was her father, Scott Quizon (seen above), who taught his children how to surf, and her sister was her main inspiration. However, it took her becoming an adult to fully appreciate everything her parents had done so she could pursue her dreams. "I give a lot [of credit] to my mom and dad," she told Outrigger Resorts in 2023. 

Scott worked full time as a truck driver, waking up at 5 a.m. and finishing at 4 p.m. Still, he rushed home every afternoon, packed up his kids, and drove them to the beach so they could practice surfing. "There are so many sacrifices that had to be done. At the time, I was so oblivious," Alessa said.

Alessa remained close with her family. When her dad suffered a stroke in July 2020, she was terrified. "It was one of the most painful experiences I had to go through. The difficulty of having to type this breaks my heart," she wrote as part of lengthy caption on Instagram, which she paired with a video of Scott surfing. Alessa's experience with Rush's adoption also gave her renewed appreciation for her mother. "Thank you for raising and loving me as a mother should. Realizing this as [I've] gotten older, some kids grew up without having this promise," she captioned a Mother's Day Instagram post. 

Like Max Holloway, Alessa Quizon also belongs to the select list of prominent Hawaiians. Not only that, but the two grew up in Waianae, something that's meaningful to him. "It was a match made in heaven you know, two pro athletes from the same town, making it," he told Sportsmanor. Quizon didn't always appreciate her home state, but she learned to the more she visited other places. Located on the West side of the island of Oahu, her hometown does not have the best reputation.

But she learned to embrace it — and have good humor about it. "[People] won't want to visit my home because they think they'll get robbed... which could possibly happen," she laughed in a 2013 interview with Surfer. It wasn't always easy. She witnessed plenty of violence in high school, even becoming caught in a riot and being maced by the police. She normally stayed out of it, but seeing police break up fights was part of her everyday life. "It was such a horrible experience," she said.

The negative aspects of her hometown taught her important life lessons, though. "Coming from the Westside, I know what bad is, so I can truly appreciate the good," she said. That's where surfing comes in. Traveling showed her just how good the good parts were. "I come back home and Hawaii's paradise so I'm like, 'Why am I taking this place for granted?'" she told Outrigger Resorts (via People).