UFC featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski remains uninterested in fighting Max Holloway for a third time and thinks it “makes no sense right now”.
The 31-year-old convincingly dethroned Holloway at UFC 245 in December 2019 before granting the Hawaiian a rematch at UFC 251. The fight was much closer than the first and Volkanovski was awarded a highly debated decision win.
UFC boss Dana White scored the second fight for Holloway and recently revealed he is most likely going to grant him another immediate rematch, he said.
“It’s hard to not say we can give Max a rematch for that fight again – do it a third time. I think a lot of the fans and the media would agree with that. I don’t know for sure.”
Volkanovski reacted to the comments made by his boss during an interview with Submission Radio, he said.
“It’s pretty clear that like, you win back-to-back, two wins in a row. To make a third one, it just doesn’t really make sense, especially right now. Again, we know that last fight was close, but the judges gave me the decision, and that’s that. And in the first fight, even though it was competitive, I pretty clearly won that fight. So, to just give him another rematch straight away and put the division on hold, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
“I ended up listening to what he (Dana White) was saying, and look, he was throwing it out there, but at the same time saying exactly what I’m saying. The division, we’ve got all these guys about to fight, and by the end of the year we’re gonna have a clear number one, and you’re just gonna keep giving Max rematches?”
“It was a close fight, and I understand why people want to see the fight again, but at the same time, I won twice back to back. So, it just doesn’t really make sense right now. It’s something that it can definitely be a big fight in the future as well. But for right now, I’ve got a division that I want to hold and I don’t want to keep on hold. So, I want number one contenders, I want some fresh blood in there. So, we’ll see who that is.”
Do you think Alexander Volkanovski should be more open to completing his trilogy with Max Holloway?