Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski looks likely to fight Max Holloway for a third time next year, an while he was entertained by his rival’s ‘Fight of The Year’ candidate scrap with Yair Rodriguez on Saturday night, it also left him with questions about how much punishment the former titleholder can continue to withstand.
“Man, Max eats a lot of shots,” Volkanovski told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “He’s a volume striker, but he’s happy to eat one to give a couple. But, I mean, how long can that last?
“I’m telling you, that chin’s going to go soon. It is going to go soon. You cannot cop that much damage. Yeah, they’re talking about 3000 strikes he’s [landed], which is incredible. Clap for that. But he’s probably in the 1000s or 2000s of absorption as well. There you go, that’s not healthy. And Conor [McGregor] touched on that actually. Conor makes a good point. You talk about being a boxer — it’s hit and not get hit. That’s what makes the best boxer. So, you look at the numbers he’s hitting a lot of numbers, but let’s look at other numbers. Let’s look at ratios. Let’s look at how many strikes they’re landing to not landing.
“It doesn’t get more impressive than mine, I don’t think. I think mine would be right up there. But again, you want to talk numbers, let’s talk real numbers.”
Volkanovski already holds two decision wins over ‘Blessed’, but with their trilogy fight potentially looming on the horizon he is now eager to see whether he can become the first fighter to stop him via strikes.
“At the end of the day, I’ll give it to Max, he’s a gamer,” Volkanovski said. “I’m sitting there trying to knock him but at the same time you’ve got to give him credit. It’s entertaining.
“Don’t get me wrong, watching that, it’s great to watch. But, at the same time, you can’t do that forever, and that that chin is going to go.
Let’s see if it goes [in] the next one. I’m going to be looking for it.”
