Alexander Volkanovski’s coach Eugene Bareman admits to being impressed by Max Holloway.
This Saturday, Volkanovski faces Holloway in a featherweight title trilogy bout as the co-main event of UFC 276, and having already spent 50 minutes coaching against him, Bareman is acknowledges that Holloway impressed him with his improvements between fights.
” I’ll simply say that both have improved since their fights,” Bareman stated when asked whether Holloway or Volkanovski had made more progress. “I think they’ve both improved quite a bit. Max did something in the second fight that I was not sure he could do. Max was capable of picking up the things that take a normal fighter (and he isn’t your average fighter). He also showed me that he has a lot more to learn. Max was able to do that, and I’ve said this before, we went for a more conservative game plan given the amount of time we had, where we just changed a few subtle things, and left it at that. That’s what we went for and we thought that Max would try and change a lot and he would not be successful doing that. This would have been his downfall, trying too hard to do too much in so little time.
In their first fight at UFC 245, Volkanovski beat Holloway unanimously. He outworked Holloway on his feet, and was particularly successful with leg kicks. In their rematch at UFC 251, Holloway came out with a different stance to counter the leg kicks, giving Volkanovski serious problems and winning the first two rounds on all three judges’ scorecards. The featherweight champion was ultimately able to adjust and won the final three rounds on two scorecards to earn a controversial split decision win, but heading into their trilogy fight, Bareman says that Holloway’s adaptability is now something they have had to prepare for.
“His inability to quickly learn and apply something, even though it took him a while since the fight. “Now we know that there’s a number of things that Max is now capable of changing now, given that the fight’s been quite a while. We know that Max could have changed a couple of things. You’ve got to remember, some fighters take years to do some things, some of the adjustments that Max was able to do in a relatively short amount of time, a few months.”
Both Holloway has had significantly more time to adapt their game since their second fight. While the rematch occurred only seven months after their first fight, nearly two years has elapsed since Volkanovski-Holloway 2. Volkanovski-Holloway won two fights in that span and both looked great. Bareman said that the team had developed a strategy to fight Holloway and Volkanovski, which will enable them to adapt as needed.
” We have a strategy and some tactics, so we need to start establishing those strategies early,” Bareman stated. “We at least need to see that strategy early so that we can start to make an assessment on what’s the direction we need to take that strategy, because it can go several places.”
But in the end, however their plans have to adjust, Bareman sees Volkanovski turning in another sterling performance to retain his title.
“A five round master class,” Bareman said. “A shut out. Just like the first fight was for Volkanovski.”
UFC 276 takes places this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
