Volkanovski Vs. Holloway 3? ‘We Have To’

It looks like Max Holloway has earned himself another title shot with that domination at UFC Fight Island 7, even though champ Alex Volkanovski has already beaten him twice.

Max Holloway put on an absolute clinic at UFC on ABC 1 Saturday afternoon, nuking Calvin Kattar from orbit with a never ending barrage of strikes. Okay, it just felt never ending … for you stats hounds out there, Holloway landed 445 significant strikes, smashing the previous record by 155 (watch the highlights here).

Wild. You see him wrecking the hottest upcoming contender like that and wonder what else is there for him to do but fight for the title again?

Even though current champ Alexander Volkanovski just got done beating Max on the scorecards twice in a row, UFC president Dana White agrees there needs to be a third fight between the two. Honestly, White was already on board with a third fight after the controversial nature of the second decision. But now?

“I think we have to. We have to,” White said at the post-fight press conference. “When you’re the champion, you have the top five guys in the world gunning for you. When you’re the number one contender, you’ve got the top ten guys in the world. And sometimes number eight is more dangerous than number three.”

“Today he fought a bad dude that a lot of people thought was gonna beat him, and treated him like number six. He did what he needed to do in spectacular fashion tonight, and I think that he deserves to fight Volkanovski again.”

Unfortunately for those hoping to maybe see “Blessed” in the cage at one of the next couple Fight Island events, that means no stepping in should Conor McGregor or Dustin Poirier get injured for UFC 257. It may mean we don’t get to see Holloway again until Volkanovski fights Brian Ortega at the end of March and whoever wins is ready to fight.

“I think what we do now is let Holloway have some time off til he can possibly fight for the title again,” White said. “I don’t know if that’d be too long or whatever, but we’ll figure it out.”

As for Volkanovski, who was looking to move on from Max Holloway after beating him twice?

“He’s got this Ortega fight coming up,” White concluded. “And I think for a guy like him to watch this fight tonight, when [Max] is the number one contender. And like I said, a lot of people that I respect thought Calvin Kattar was gonna win this fight tonight. And the way he looked, Volkanovski can’t even deny that Max deserves another shot.”

Well, while Volkanovski did seem impressed by Holloway’s performance, he rightfully pointed out that Max didn’t manage to get that kind of offense going against him, which seems a lot more impressive after watching “Blessed” tear through Ortega and Kattar like a buzzsaw.

Perhaps one more dominating performance against another top featherweight would seal the deal? We know one guy who thinks he can steal Holloway’s thunder, and we have an inkling Dana might enjoy putting this fight together: