LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JULY 02: Alexander Volkanovsky (R) of Australia punches Max Holloway in their featherweight title fight during UFC 276 at T-Mobile Arena on July 02, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS — Max Holloway lapped the rest of the featherweight field, but Alexander Volkanovsky lapped Holloway.
Volkanovski showed the giant chasm that exists at the top of arguably the UFC’s best and deepest division by winning all five rounds against the former champion in perhaps the best performance of his career on Saturday in the UFC’s co-main event 276 at T-Mobile Arena.
Volkanovski outlasted Holloway, who is touted as the best boxer in the UFC. Volkanovski was almost perfect in his boxing and didn’t have to step on the gas at all in the fight.
He was almost in second gear, pounding Holloway with punches and right hands and controlling the fight from start to finish.
He has now beaten Holloway all three times they have met, following wins at UFC 245 in 2019 and UFC 251 in 2020. They were close and there is a legitimate argument that Holloway won the latter.
This one was without a doubt though.
“Max Holloway is an absolute beast,” Volkanovsky said. “That intensity that he’s brought the last few days has brought out the best in me. I needed that.”
Volkanovski is ranked second in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings and is the top featherweight by a wide margin.
Now he has his eye on the cures. UFC president Dana White said he would allow Volkanovski to fight for the belt if he moved up, and Volkanovski appeared to show in the cage that that’s what he would do.
“This division is not enough to concern me,” Volkanovski said of the pen. “I want to move up because I need two divisions to keep me busy.”
He opened a massive, cavernous gash above Holloway’s left eye early in the fight, which bled profusely. To his credit, this didn’t seem to bother Holloway.
He fought hard but was simply defeated by a superior fighter.
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