Alexander Volkanovski has moved past Max Holloway.
In their three fights series, “The Great” has come out on top in each encounter with two unanimous decisions sandwiching a split decision. The July 2022 trilogy bout was undeniably the most impressive from the Australian mixed martial arts (MMA) legend, pitching a masterful shutout over the former “Blessed” titleholder, Holloway.
Holloway recently rebounded off the loss with another strong showing, defeating Arnold Allen via a unanimous decision that kept him unbeaten in non-title fights dating back to Aug. 2013. Should Holloway not leave the Featherweight division and pursue gold at Lightweight, he’ll likely be favored over all other contenders en route to a desired fourth Volkanovski encounter. The champion just doesn’t see the point after beating the Hawaiian thrice.
“It’s a hard fight to sell,” Volkanovski told The MMA Fan Podcast. “Three fights, you know, three wins with a guy and then doing a fourth one, and then what if he does win? What are you going to do? We’re going to have to go another two times? Obviously, that wouldn’t happen. I definitely believed and proved I’ve got his number.
“How do you sell it?” he continued. “I mean, never say never, but like I said, I want fights that are going to excite me. Honestly, right now, I need to see more maybe, maybe it would be different, but yeah, that doesn’t sound very exciting. It’s not very fun to talk about.”
The best-case scenario for Holloway will be a Volkanovski loss on July 8, 2023, at UFC 290. Volkanovski is set to unify his undisputed Featherweight crown with Yair Rodriguez’s interim title at the upcoming Las Vegas, Nevada pay-per-view (PPV). If all goes his way, Volkanovski then hopes to get a late 2023 Lightweight title rematch against the only man to defeat him in UFC, that division’s champion, Islam Makhachev.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
