“I understand it [the desire for a trilogy] but come on, I ain’t going to keep rematching him till he wins”.
Alexander Volkanovski has beaten Max Holloway twice now, but some fans still aren’t convinced ‘The Great’ is the real deal.
Volkanovski edged out a split decision win over Holloway in July to retain his featherweight title but, six months on, and some fans still aren’t satisfied with the result and would like to see the Australian prove himself in a trilogy bout.
Volkanovski, who is the only fighter to beat Holloway in back-to-back fights, has no interest in another rematch and has urged the critics to move on.
“It is annoying. People just quickly forget,” Volkanovski told SCMP MMA in a recent interview (h/t Abhinav Kini of The Body Lock MMA). “All they remember is the close fight we had last July. That’s all they remember. It was a close fight. It was very competitive. Max showed up early. I didn’t really show up.
“Luckily enough, I’m so well rounded and I’ve got that grit, I’m going to push myself. I ain’t going make excuses but if there was going to be a day that Max Holloway was going to beat me, that was the day. Let me just put that out there. And I was still able to steal the last three rounds so that just shows you how good I am. But people are going to forget that too.”
“So again, it is annoying but at the same time, I understand it. It was a close fight. It was a very competitive fight and it was two of the best going at it. There’s a lot of hate but at the same time, there are so many people who appreciate two of the guys at the highest level having this chess match. A lot of people are missing that and they don’t realize that what they got to see was fucking rare. It is rare to see two of the highest level figuring each other out and really adjusting every minute. The fight IQ that was involved in both our fights was just incredible and people are missing that because obviously they see the first two rounds and that’s all they remember.”
“I understand it [the desire for a trilogy] but come on, I ain’t going to keep rematching him till he wins.”
Volkanovski is expected to return to the octagon in 2021 to defend his featherweight title against Brian Ortega, but no date or venue has been announced as of yet.