After Max Holloway defended the featherweight title last night, it wasn’t long before “Blessed” was asked about whether he’s down to face Alexander Volkanovski at the UFC’s upcoming, massive card in Australia. While Holloway is open to the possibility, the featherweight king didn’t commit to the October 5th date either.
Holloway faced Frankie Edgar in the main event of UFC 240, and he outscored the legend throughout five rounds and won a unanimous decision. Since Volkanovski has won all seven of his UFC bouts to date, and because he’s coming off a win over former champ Jose Aldo, the consensus is he’ll be next for Holloway.
So what about fighting Volkanovski at the UFC’s October 5th card in Melbourne? Since Volkanovski is from Australia? And because the card’s going down at the city’ massive, Marvel Stadium? When asked about the possibility, Holloway said this (quotes via MMA Junkie):
“We’ll see what happens,” Holloway said. “I look fine, I look great, but I’ll wait to talk to my team and my coaches. I fought three title fights in seven months. I want to fight one more time this year, but we’ve got to take all the right tests and see and we’ll go from there.”
“I’ve got this little mini-me (his son) right here. We had some tragedies in combat sports this past week and we want to stay on top of it and go to the doctors. I’m trying to stay around for a long time, not a good time.”
Now, obviously having Volkanovski compete on that card, in a title fight, would be a great way to move more tickets and views. But, when you consider how much Holloway’s fought in the last year (as he noted), it would be kind of surprising if Holloway – Volkanovski takes place at UFC 243. “Blessed” would probably need to jump back into another training camp within two or three weeks, if he was going to fight on October 5th.
Holloway did say he wants to fight one more time before the year is out, and he also talked about fighting in December. So, that sounds like a more plausible timeline for Holloway’s next bout.