We’ve never had a fighter take on the same opponent four straight times in the UFC, but that’s not one hundred percent out of the question with the current situation in the featherweight division. Alexander Volkanovski surprised the world by taking the belt from Max Holloway, and held onto it by defeating Holloway again, but now it’s unclear who his next opponent is and Dana White is partial to another fight against the former champ.
That poses some obvious problems, though. For one, Volkanovski has defeated Holloway two straight times already. It’s hard to say that Holloway deserves another rematch this soon. Second, if Holloway does win a rematch like this, it puts the matchmakers in a very awkward situation.
Volkanovski has done enough to earn an immediate rematch if he loses, after all. But this ‘rematch’ would actually be the fourth fight between him and Holloway.
For obvious reasons, the current champion isn’t too fond of the idea.
What did Volkanovski say about the potential fight?
“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. 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,” Volkanovski said to Submission Radio. “So, to just give him another rematch straight away and put the division on hold, it just doesn’t make any sense…”
He also implied that the UFC is looking to push one of their stars back to champion status by giving him a second instant rematch.
“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.”
It’s true that many of the other contenders in the division are occupied, but it does look bad for the UFC to give one of their former champions back to back shots at winning the belt again without giving other fighters a chance during the same period.
And if there is a fourth fight, it may not do as well from a ratings point of view. Fans want to see something different after a while, after all. This is anything but that. But with the current state of the division being what it is, we’ll just have to wait and see what the league eventually decides. There’s no telling what the decision from Dana White will be.