Max Holloway has teased a possible move up to lightweight if he beats Alexander Volkanovski in their trilogy featherweight title fight this weekend at UFC 276 in Las Vegas.
“We’ll see what happens. Never say never, right.” Holloway told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour show. “There’s interesting fights up there, especially with [Charles] Oliveira leading the pack and stuff. So we’ll see what happens. I can’t wait. First things first, it’s Alex, July 2. Let’s bring back balance to the world.”
As it happens, his opponent on Saturday night, Volkanovski had also recently hinted that he might be on the verge of a move up to lightweight if he beats Holloway for a third time in what would be the fourth defense of his featherweight belt.
That would be new territory for Volkanovski, in the UFC at least, though he had fought a few times at 155lbs on the regional circuit before joining the promotion.
As for Holloway, he has fought once before at 155lbs in the Octagon, moving up to take on Dustin Poirier for the interim lightweight title back in 2019 at a time when he was also still the featherweight champion.
However, that fight didn’t go according to plan for Holloway, losing by unanimous decision to end a 13-fight winning streak.
For now though both men will have to be laser-focused on fighting each other as their previous two bouts were very closely fought five-rounders and both are coming into this third clash in excellent form.
