Kansas City, Mo – Former UFC champion Max Holloway (23-7) didn’t have to think about his future after his last fight. The former champion is coming off his third loss to featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski which triggered many people to consider his future for him.
However, Holloway never thought about moving weight classes. The thought was that with Holloway having lost to Volkanovski three times, he likely wouldn’t get another crack at the belt as long as Volk is the champ. With that, there’d be no incentive to stay at 145.
Holloway told the media yesterday, “I’m still here bro, I’m right in front of them. People keep giving me a hard time about how we’e going to do the fourth and this and that. Watching Izzy (Israel Adesanya) last week was pretty inspiring. This is MMA… At the end of the day, anything can happen. I go out there and put a statement out there. Whose to say what happens.”
Still eyeing UFC featherweight title
Alexander Volkanovski is currently scheduled to take on Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 in July. Holloway has a victory over Rodriguez while again, he’s gone 0-3 against Volkanovski. Holloway acknowledged that Volk would likely get an immediate rematch should he lose to Rodriguez given his history in the division.
As long as Volkanovski is champion, Holloway knows it’s a tough road to get back to a title shot given the fact that they’ve fought three times. However, he’s not shying away from taking on the toughest challenges to try and earn it. He said that lightweight will always be an option, but in speaking with the UFC, he didn’t get the feeling that a featherweight title shot is off the table.
Holloway told the media that the UFC didn’t push his team on him moving to 155. They took that as a sign that he can still get a shot at 145 down the line and with that, he wanted to take on the best challenge there is which is why he’s facing off against Arnold Allen (19-1) at UFC Kansas City.
There’s a lot on the line for Holloway. Outside of Volkanovski, nobody has been able to defeat him over the past few years at 145. If he can go out there and dominated Allen, it will start to make the case easier for a potential fourth fight with the champ just like he said.