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Volkanovski has won the two previous meetings with Holloway by decision.
UFC men’s featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski may not be keen on another rematch with Max Holloway, but Dana White is not ruling out the possibility of a trilogy showdown.
In an interview with ESPN, White addressed the featherweight title picture, which admittedly does not have a clear #1 contender at the moment but quite a few prospective challengers for the belt. As White sees it, because of the upcoming fights for the top contenders (along with Calvin Kattar having fought just recently), Volkanovski vs. Holloway 3 isn’t out of the question.
“Well, here’s the thing,” White said (via MMA Junkie). “Calvin Kattar just fought. Yair Rodriguez has a fight coming up. (Korean) ‘Zombie’ has a fight coming up. Ortega and Zabit – all of these guys are going to fight in the next couple of months here. We’ll see how that all plays out. It’s hard to not say we can give Max a rematch for that fight again – do it a third time. I think all of the fans and the media would agree with that. I don’t know for sure.”
Volkanovski took the title away from Holloway by unanimous decision at UFC 245. There was no debating who was the winner on that night, but there was considerable controversy with regards to the scoring of their UFC 251 rematch, which saw the Australian rally from an early 20-18 deficit to win a split decision. Dana White was quite critical of the judging and highlighted that particular bout as an example.
In a recent interview, Volkanovski said that a third fight with Holloway doesn’t make sense “at this point.”
“I’m sure Volkanovski doesn’t love that idea,” White said. “He’s like, ‘Listen, I just beat this guy twice. You know?’ And if you’re Volkanovski, you’re like, ‘Guess what? The media aren’t judges. Dana White is not a judge. None of these people are judges. The people that are assigned to judge the fight say I won twice.’
White added that he hasn’t really talked to Volkanovski about it yet, but I think we have a general idea of his level of interest in a third consecutive fight against a man he’s officially beaten twice.