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“We’ve got 15 people that are ranked for a reason, and what, we’re just gonna keep fighting until Max wins?”
Alexander Volkanovski is not too keen on Dana White’s idea of running it back with Max Holloway — again — after his latest featherweight title win over ‘Blessed’ at UFC 251.
Volkanovski originally beat Holloway at UFC 245 to win the featherweight title, but their rematch earlier this month was much closer, with many pundits scoring the bout in favor of Holloway.
Speaking to Submission Radio in a recent interview, the reigning featherweight champion explained why a trilogy bout with Holloway makes absolutely no sense.
“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,” Volkanovski said (h/t MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew). “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. . .
“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.”
“Look, man, I gave Max a rematch for them. The UFC didn’t give me anything else but the rematch. My team weren’t too happy about that, but again, I ended up saying, you know what, there’s no one else, I still think this is the biggest fight for me on that card as well – cause there was no clear number ones, so I think that was the biggest fight, and that’s why I wanted to do it. So, we ended up making it worth it on a big card like it was and we made it happen. . .
“I probably would maybe consider it if there was no other fight and this was the fight that everyone wanted, but it seems like everyone wants us to move on anyway. The division needs to play out, and we got a whole division, there’s so many of us. We’ve got 15 people that are ranked for a reason, and what, we’re just gonna keep fighting until Max wins? You know what I mean? It just doesn’t make sense.”
Asked about a possible superfight with former UFC flyweight and bantamweight champ Henry Cejudo, Volkanovski had the following to say.
“I’ve got a division to hold and I’ve got my eye on the division, I want these number one contenders,” he said. “And if for some reason the UFC pushed that on me, like I said, I’ve got to get paid for it, because it’s just a waste of time for me, I believe. A waste of time for the division.
“Again, he’s done great thing things in flyweight and bantamweight, but I mean, featherweight is whole different beast. . . That’s why it just doesn’t make sense for me, cause everyone’s just going to sort of expect me to go out there and mop the floor. And that’s pretty much exactly what’s going to happen. No disrespect to Henry Cejduo, but it’s a whole different breed in this division.”
Volkanovski (22-1 MMA, 9-0 UFC) is currently ranked #7 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.