Max Holloway sees the UFC 314 main event going one of two ways.
Unsuccessful in his attempt to become a two-time featherweight champion last year against Ilia Topuria, Holloway watches on as former foe Alexander Volkanovski goes for gold against Diego Lopes.
Topuria relinquished the title in the months after knocking out Holloway, Volkanovski and Lopes now meeting for the vacant title in Miami this Saturday.
Title fights are nothing new for Volkanovski, this being his 10th-consecutive. As for Lopes, it’s new territory, UFC 314 marking his first five-round fight in the Octagon since joining the roster less than two year ago.
So, who comes out on top? The grizzled former champ or the younger, hungrier challenger?
Styles make fights and Volkanovski’s known for being more of a experienced, high-level technician whereas Lopes is a super-aggressive finisher with devastating KO power and highly-touted submission skills.
Having spent 15 rounds fighting Volkanovski (and nearly beating him in the rematch), former champ Max Holloway takes a look at the next featherweight title fight.
“There’s only two ways I see this fight going,” Holloway said on his YouTube channel.
“If Alex be the winner, I think he goes to vintage Alex, stick-and-move, pop-shot, and play his leg kicks.
“Maybe grapple, some dirty boxing against the fence, he ekes out a decision maybe a unanimous decision.”
Holloway was simply outclassed in his trilogy fight with Volkanovski with the champion’s striking output far too great.
The fighting Hawaiian put on a much better performance against Volkanovski in their rematch at UFC 251, almost knocking him out in rounds 1 and 2 before Volkanovski picked up the slack in the championship rounds for a split decision victory.
“If Diego wins, it’s within the first three rounds,” Holloway said of Lopes’ chances.
“I think Diego catches him,” Holloway said of how Lopes beats Volkanovski. “Diego comes at you like a hundred miles per hour, bro. He comes at you and he’s like a crazy train flying off the tracks, bro.
“He comes right at you, punching at you. I think the most dangerous part for this fight is definitely the first two rounds for Volk, maybe three.”
Max Holloway backs Alexander Volkanovski to reclaim title
1-3 in his last four fights with back-to-back KO losses to champions Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev and his chin questionable, Holloway refuses to count out his greatest rival Volkanovski in his long-awaited UFC return as other former champions are doing.
“At the end of the day, I think Volk recaptures,” Holloway said of his former foe.
“But I can see Diego capturing it and catching Volk,” Holloway admitted.
“But it’s MMA. We’ll see what happens…”
Volkanovski is 17-1 in the featherweight division with his only loss at the weight class coming to the heavy-handed Ilia Topuria. Volkanovski can crack too, holding TKO wins over Chad Mendes, The Korean Zombie and Yair Rodriguez.
