Max Holloway talks potential UFC 243 fight with Alex Volkanovski

At UFC 240, Max Holloway successfully defended his featherweight title against Frankie Edgar. The Hawaiian champion has strengthened his reign by defeating some of the UFC’s best talent — now including the former lightweight champion. This leaves many wondering, who will try and dethrone “Blessed” next?

Australian fighter Alex Volkanovski is currently ranked number No. 1 in the featherweight division. He most recent fights have also been against top fighters. This includes back to back wins against Darren Elkins, Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo. He is yet to be defeated in the UFC’s Octagon and is confident he’s the man to unseat Holloway.

After earning his victory on Saturday, Holloway shared his thoughts on a potential fight against Volkanovski — perhaps at UFC 243 in Volkanovski’s native Australia (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “I look fine, I look great, but I’ll wait till my team, I’ll wait till my coaches [give the ok]. We’ve got to get medical testing.”

“I’ve fought three title fights in seven months. I want to fight one more time this year but we’ve got to go take all the right tests and see and we’ll go from there.”

UFC 243 will be held at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne, October 6. While this card seems like a fantastic setting for a Holloway vs. Volkanovski fight, Holloway doesn’t want to rush the decision.

“I know how bad I want to fight at home and I don’t want to take that away from the guy but at the end of the day, I’ve just got to go see the doctors and get checked up and we’ll go from there,” Holloway said. “At the end of the day, a stadium and stuff is cool. I definitely want to fight before the end of the year for sure.”

With the recent death of boxer Maxim Dadashev, and the prevalence of life-altering injuries amongst athletes, many fighters are taking greater care with the fights they accept. Holloway is no exception.

“I’ve got this little mini-me right here,” he said, gesturing to his son. “We had some tragedies in combat sports this past week and we want to stay on top of it and go to the doctors. I’m trying to stay around for a long time, not a good time. “We’ll see what happens. I look fine, I look great, but I’ll wait to talk to my team and my coaches. I fought three title fights in seven months. I want to fight one more time this year, but we’ve got to take all the right tests and see and we’ll go from there.”

“We’ll see. New York sounds cool. Volkanovski in [Australia] sounds cool. So we’ll see. I’ve got to go check with the doctors, get checked and we’ll go from there.” said Holloway.

Do you think we’ll see Max Holloway and Alex Volkanovski fight at UFC 243?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/28/2019.