Max Holloway shares prediction for Alexander Volkanovski vs. Ilia Topuria: “There’s a reason they didn’t give me Ilia”

Max Holloway has shared his prediction for the UFC 298 featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Ilia Topuria.

Volkanovski is returning to the featherweight division to take on the undefeated Topuria in a highly-anticipated matchup. It’s a scrap that many fans are looking forward to and one many are torn on who will win.

Heading into the fight, Alexander Volkanovski is a slight -125 favorite while Ilia Topuria is a +105 underdog, showing that the oddsmakers expect the fight to be close. However, former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway has full confidence that Volkanovski will remain the champ after Saturday night.

“Brother, there’s a reason they didn’t give me Ilia. They wanted him to make it to this fight. The first question is, Volk, man. Volk is hearing the chatter, Volk’s last fight, getting finished whatever, hes hearing the old man talk. The guy got the dog in him, you guy will find out tomorrow. I think he finishes Ilia before five,” Max Holloway said at the UFC 300 fan press conference on Friday.

As Holloway says, both he and Topuria were interested in making that fight happen, but the UFC opted to give the Georgian-Spainard a title shot instead. Holloway believes that is because the UFC knew he would lose to him and they needed to give Volkanovski a fresh challenger, which is why he’s picking the Aussie to remain the champ on Saturday.

As for Max Holloway, he is set to move up to the lightweight division at UFC 300 against Justin Gaethje for the BMF belt in April. Should the Hawaiian win that fight it’s uncertain if he would remain at 155lbs or return to 145lbs as he has made it clear he still wants to reclaim his featherweight strap.

Holloway is currently 25-7 and coming off a KO win over Korean Zombie in August. Before that, he scored a decision win over Arnold Allen to return to the win column after a decision loss to Alexander Volkanovski. Holloway is the former featherweight champion and is 0-3 against Volkanovski. But, before losing the belt to the Aussie, Holloway defended his belt three times.