“Blessed” has decided to stay at Featherweight and fight his way back to the title … much to champion Alexander Volkanovski’s chagrin.
Max Holloway is sticking around at Featherweight until he gets another title shot.
Holloway spent three years as champion at 145 pounds before getting dethroned by Alexander Volkanovski. “The Great” then beat “Blessed” twice more, each time more dominantly than the last. Going 0-3 pretty much puts Holloway out of contention unless Volkanovski loses the belt … but “Blessed” his holding onto hope he’ll still get a title shot.
“I’m still here,” Holloway told Sports Illustrated following his win over Arnold Allen at UFC Kansas City this past weekend (recap here). “You’re only as good as your last fight. Now, I have this one. It felt good to jog people’s memories … I’m on the road back to the title shot. If that means I’ve got to beat a few more guys first, then I’ll go beat a few more guys.”
Holloway and Volkanovski seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of the pack at Featherweight, and there may not be much movement atop the division so long as both men continue to dominate. That’s frustrating to Volkanovski, who sees Holloway bunging up his contender train.
“I just said to him, ‘Get out of my division! Stop beating up my contenders!’” Alex said following UFC Kansas City.
Holloway just plans to keep fighting and winning. He called out “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung and hopes another win gets him back into title conversation. In the meantime, Alexander Volkanovski will fight interim champion Yair Rodriguez in July to unify the featherweight titles.
“I know there is a fight in July, and I’ll be watching,” Holloway said. “I’ll speak with my agent, with Hunter [Campbell] and Dana [White], and we’ll see what happens.”
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