UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski sees Max Holloway overwhelming Charles Oliveira.
Holloway (27-8 MMA, 23-8 UFC) defends his BMF title in a rematch against Oliveira (36-11 MMA, 23-11 UFC), which headlines Saturday’s UFC 326 (Paramount+) event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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Holloway won his first meeting against Oliveira in August 2015 by first-round TKO due to injury. It’s a rematch 11 years in the making, but Volkanovski still envisions the same outcome.
“Max Holloway, you go 100 percent,” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “Now he is going to get you tired, and he’s one guy who knows how to capitalize on someone being tired. If he sees you tired, he’s going to make you pay more and more and more, and he can definitely mentally and physically break you down. Does that give him opportunities to get the finish? I’m going to say yes. I think you’ll get some better value at him getting the finish. I think he can get the finish. I think the later rounds he gets the finish. I can definitely see a finish in the third or fourth round even.
“I think Max Holloway can definitely start to land, get in position where Charles is more shelling up, trying to grab, not really working, and you see Max starting to get the finish, and the ref’s just sort of stopping it. Max is the type of guy that can put that type of pace on you. Charles is going to be dangerous enough to put him in danger, but only thing is, you can’t do that for five rounds with someone like Max. It’s either Charles lands and gets a finish early, or he gets finished in the later rounds. I’m leaning more towards a finish than a decision for Max.”
With Holloway having won four of his past five, including a knockout of current interim lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, Volkanovski thinks beating Oliveira should undoubtedly lead to a title shot.
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“After this fight, if he wins, how is he not fighting for the title? I believe he should have already fought for the title,” Volkanovski said. “Obviously he lost, but that was at featherweight against the champ (Topuria). Then there’s an interim, you think he would have been a no-brainer if the guy in the interim was Gaethje, even though he beat Gaethje. I think that should have been Max to be honest. I think he fights for a belt. I think that’s clear.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Alexander Volkanovski: Max Holloway stops Charles Oliveira at UFC 326
