Blocking shots with your face does not count as defense, according to the current champ.
Max Holloway continued his dominance in the 145-pound division last Sat. night (Nov. 13) in Las Vegas, capturing a five-round decision over Yair Rodriguez after 25 minutes of brain-scrambling action. While the performance was good enough for yet another “Fight of the Night” bonus, reigning featherweight titleholder Alex Volkanovski believes it will continue the slow demise of the “Blessed” ex-champion.
“Max eats a lot of shots,” Volkanovski told The MMA Hour. “He’s a volume striker, but he’s happy to eat one to give a couple. But, I mean, how long can that last? I’m telling you, that chin’s going to go soon. You cannot cop that much damage. Yeah, they’re talking about 3000 strikes he’s [landed], which is incredible. Clap for that. But he’s probably in the 1000s or 2000s of absorption as well. There you go, that’s not healthy.”
Holloway lands a staggering 7.38 significant strikes per minute with 47-percent accuracy, but also absorbs 4.69 strikes per minute with 60-percent striking defense. Volkanovski dishes out 6.42 significant strikes per minute with 56-percent accuracy and eats 3.34 significant strikes per minute while defending 60-percent of incoming fire.
For context, Conor McGregor’s numbers are 5.32 (49 percent) and 4.66 (54 percent).
“Conor [McGregor] touched on that actually,” Volkanovski continued. “Conor makes a good point. You talk about being a boxer — it’s hit and not get hit. That’s what makes the best boxer. So, you look at the numbers he’s hitting a lot of numbers, but let’s look at other numbers. Let’s look at ratios. Let’s look at how many strikes they’re landing to not landing. It doesn’t get more impressive than mine, I don’t think. I think mine would be right up there. But again, you want to talk numbers, let’s talk real numbers.”
Holloway (23-6) dropped two close decisions to Volkanovski (23-1) and the Rodriguez victory — his third straight — is expected to earn the Hawaiian a third go-round with the “Great” Australian. No timetable for that fight has been established but with No. 2-ranked Brian Ortega coming off a recent loss to Volkanovski, there’s nobody in the Top 5 with a better claim to the next featherweight title fight.