Dan Hooker humorously likened Max Holloway to a Fresh Pince era Will Smith in terms of likability.
The Hangman now feels like public sentiment has swayed in a more positive direction for Alexander Volkanovski since the Holloway sequel. What stays consistent though is that Dan Hooker foresees the same man raising their hand up this time out.
Volkanovski made two trips to City Kickboxing ahead of the trilogy showdown at UFC 276. But mostly the reigning UFC featherweight champion was plying his trade at home with Joe Lopez at Freestyle MMA.
That being said, good energy circulates around during his CKB visits. The team has had a lot of collective momentum lately sparked by individual successes.
Does that level of momentum result in a finish for Volk though? When asked if a finish could manifest in this trilogy clash, the UFC featherweight and lightweight stalwart really broke it down.
“It’s going to be another close fight.”, Hooker said on The AllStar MMA Live show, “Those are the two best featherweights in the world. Like hands down, head and shoulders. I feel like they’re just a little bit ahead of anyone else in the division at the moment. Like that, yeah. I just feel like Volk’s got his number, you know what I mean. We’ve seen it twice. Like he was saying, he was a bit lackadaisical in that second fight. Got caught out of position a couple of times.”
“The levels of growth that he has shown since then. In the (Brian) Ortega fight and then in the Korean Zombie fight, he’s just more focused than ever. He’s definitely not as a champion like lost any kind of motivation or focus. It’s just building even more. So I feel like the deck is definitely stacked in his favor coming into this. He’s just more mature. Under the lights, he’s more mature. I feel like we’ll see fight week.”
“I feel like he’s going to handle this very well. Even though that Max is the fan favorite and stuff like that, he’s going to handle this very well. That’s the thing. You beat a guy three times, you ain’t getting another rematch. He’s gonna have to go change division or something crazy like that because you’re not getting another shot in a while.”
Fighter profile
Max “Blessed” Holloway is a 30-year-old male fighter from the United States with 23 pro wins and 6 losses. Holloway is scheduled to fight Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 276: Adesanya vs. Cannonier on Saturday, July 2, 2022.
Max Holloway’s recent form coming into this matchup
Max Holloway has gone 3-2 in the last 5 professional MMA fights.
- Win vs Yair Rodriguez • Decision R5 5:00 • 2021-11-13
- Win vs Calvin Kattar • Decision R5 5:00 • 2021-01-16
- Loss vs Alexander Volkanovski • Decision R5 5:00 • 2020-07-11
- Loss vs Alexander Volkanovski • Decision R5 5:00 • 2019-12-14
- Win vs Frankie Edgar • Decision R5 5:00 • 2019-07-27
Max Holloway’s next opponent: Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski
Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski’s recent form coming into this matchup
Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski is a 33-year-old male fighter from Australia with 24 pro wins and 1 loss. Volkanovski is scheduled to fight Max Holloway at UFC 276: Adesanya vs. Cannonier on Saturday, July 2, 2022.
Alexander Volkanovski has gone 5-0 in the last 5 professional MMA fights.
- Win vs Chan Sung Jung • KO/TKO R4 0:45 • 2022-04-09
- Win vs Brian Ortega • Decision R5 5:00 • 2021-09-25
- Win vs Max Holloway • Decision R5 5:00 • 2020-07-11
- Win vs Max Holloway • Decision R5 5:00 • 2019-12-14
- Win vs José Aldo • Decision R3 5:00 • 2019-05-11
How to watch and bet on Max Holloway vs Alexander Volkanovski
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