Max Holloway will likely be next in line for a featherweight title shot but won’t chase the trilogy fight with Alex Volkanovski.
After Holloway dominated Calvin Kattar on Saturday, many including Dana White said the Hawaiian earned a title shot. However, the current champ in Volkanovski is set to fight Brian Ortega at UFC 260. If Volkanovski wins, whether or not he would accept a trilogy fight with Holloway is uncertain. If he doesn’t the Hawaiian has no problem having to fight other contenders.
“We’ll see what happens,” Holoway said at Saturday’s post-fight presser (h/t MMAFighting). “Even with Khabib, Khabib is saying he wants something that’s super interesting. Maybe I pushed him over the edge a little bit. We had one of the best press conferences in the world, I think, we just didn’t have the fight. So we could throw that in if he wanted to. Volkanovski said—This is his words, not mine—he said he wants a different fight. He don’t want a tougher fight, guys, let that sink in. He wants a different fight. He didn’t say I want a tougher challenge. He knows who the toughest challenge is, he knows it’s me, so at the end of the day I’m not gonna force someone to fight me.
“I’m gonna stay ready, do whatever I gotta do, and just be ready. Like I said, I’m here until next week. If something happens in this crazy wild sport, don’t be surprised. Tune in next week to the pay-per-view, huge pay-per-view, there’s a bunch of surprises happening.”
If Max Holloway does not get the trilogy fight with Volkanovski the Hawaiian says he is interested in legacy fights. Perhaps the former champ does end up moving up to lightweight and the UFC won’t have to book the trilogy fight anytime soon.
