Former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is uncertain if a trilogy will happen with current champ Alexander Volkanovski.
Holloway spoke with MMA journalist Ariel Helwani on the latest edition of The MMA Hour ahead of his UFC Vegas 42 main event bout with Yair Rodriguez this Saturday night and said the following about there being bigger options for him to face next, other than Volkanovski.
“I’ve got five title defenses and I would like that sixth. But, you know, with possible fights and stuff, there are bigger fights that UFC discussed with us,” Holloway said (h/t MMA Fighting). “I’ve got a win over the 155 [pound] champ right now [Charles Oliveira]. We’re always on the shortlist for Conor [McGregor]. The last time, before we got injured [in June], we were one of the replacement fighters [to fight McGregor]. And then, I’m the best boxer in the UFC, so use your imagination, my friends. It’s a wild world today. You can go call [UFC executive] Hunter [Campbell] right now, go ask him who can sell, who’s going to sell numbers with Conor, and they’re going to drop my name all the time. So, at the end of the day, I’m always on the shortlist for Conor, so we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens. First things first. I’ve got to fight November 13th and we’ll go from there.”
He also gave his reaction to the main event of UFC 266 between Volkanovski and Brian Ortega, saying the fight between his former foes went a lot how he expected it to.
“I got to see some clips, some highlights, and it went exactly as I thought,” Holloway said. “If it was a striking match, I thought Alex was going to pick him apart. And then whenever they got close, I thought Brian would go in to try to wrap him up, and that’s pretty much what happened. I thought Alex did well, but at the end of the day, I don’t know how it felt to get dropped by Brian or even to get wrapped up by Brian. So, in all actuality, Brian didn’t do that well against me, so I don’t know. I don’t know what it is.”
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