Alexander Volkanovski is questioning the validity of the injury Max Holloway suffered that led to an audible being called in the featherweight title picture.
Volkanovski was targeted to defend his UFC featherweight championship in March against Holloway in a triolgy fight at UFC 272 before “Blessed” reaggravated an old injury. With Holloway seemingly out of the picture, the UFC booked Volkanovski’s next title defense against “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273, which is scheduled to take place April 9 in Jacksonville.
This past week, MMA Fighting confirmed that Holloway has been medically cleared to resume training and has offered to be a backup for the 145-pound title fight should he be needed. Volkanovski took Tuesday’s Twitter to express his dismay, but he wasn’t kind.
@BlessedMMA wants to be the backup fighter for the fight he was originally scheduled to fight. In other words, he wasn’t hurt. Just hoping he doesn’t have to fight me or fight me while I’m preparing for someone…but hey “if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying” …NO
— Alex Volkanovski (@alexvolkanovski) February 9, 2022
“[Max Holloway] wants to be the backup fighter for the fight he was originally scheduled to fight, so in other words…he was never injured,” Volkanovski stated. He said, “Just hoping that he won’t have fight me or fight him while I’m training for somebody.”
Volkanovski holds a pair of decision wins against Holloway, with their second meeting at UFC 251 still remains as one of the more closely contested title fights in recent history. While Volkanovski has gone on to defend his title against Brian Ortega, Holloway earned his way back to a shot at Volkanovski with 2021 wins over Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez.
