Why Alexander Volkanovski Must Have Max Holloway Trilogy Before Moving To Lightweight

Alexander Volkanovski--the reigning featherweight champion--made sure he left UFC 273 with the title around his waist after knocking out Chan Sung Jung in the fourth round of their main event meeting.

After the fight, Volkanovski revealed that he is strongly considering either moving up to lightweight or settling his trilogy with Max Holloway.

“That’s a fight I wanted purely for the haters and all that type of stuff. Obviously, I want the biggest fights. He showed that that’s probably going to be the biggest fight. So we’ll talk to the team, we’ll see if he wants it, we’ll see if we want it, if the team wants it, if the UFC wants it, and then we’ll make that decision. I’m going to make the right decision for the right reasons,” said the champ during the post-fight press conference as quoted by MMA Junkie.

Holloway was the king of the featherweights when he met Volkanovski back at UFC 245 in 2019, with the former being absolutely battered and dominated for the entirety of the five-round war.

During the UFC’s Fight Island saga at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair again met in the co-main event of UFC 251, but the result would turn into a controversy.

The champion-turned-challenger was eager in getting his title back from his conqueror as Holloway knocked him down in the opening frame and in the second.

It seemed to be as if “Blessed” was going to be successful in regaining the featherweight strap, but a suspect scorecard had Volkanovski being the winner in a highly-contentious split decision.

Though Volkanovski has proven that he is leagues better than the version that faced Holloway on that fateful evening, it is still a blemish that he must address now rather than later.

The trilogy fight was originally set for March 5 as part of the UFC 272 card, but an injury to the Hawaiian forced the fight to be scrapped and he was later cleared for UFC 273, offering to be a backup in case “The Korean Zombie” needed to pull out.

With Volkanovski and Holloway clearly having unsettled issues and the second fight being a win in favor of the latter in most fans’ minds, the featherweight champion has to push for this bout.

UFC and mixed martial arts fans will be eagerly waiting to see what happens next in this rivalry between Volkanovski and Holloway.