Volkanovski suspects Holloway 'was never injured,' wanted out of fight
Alexander Volkanovski has doubts about the legitimacy of Max Holloway's injury.
Holloway was briefly scheduled to challenge Volkanovski for the UFC featherweight title in March, but he withdrew from the fight after aggravating a prior injury.
Last week, Holloway was reportedly cleared to train and offered to serve as the backup for the newly booked title fight between Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung, which is set for April 9. That willingness to compete so soon after being cleared has Volkanovski wondering if the former champion was ever injured at all.
@BlessedMMA wants to be the backup fighter for the fight he was originally scheduled to fight.🤦🏻♂️ so in other words…he was never injured. Just hoping he doesn’t have to fight me or fight me while I’m preparing for someone…but hey “if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying”😆…NO
— Alex Volkanovski (@alexvolkanovski) February 9, 2022
Holloway has yet to comment publicly on why he was cleared just weeks after withdrawing from the Volkanovski fight. But it's possible the injury wasn't as serious as initially thought, or he recovered quicker than expected.
As of last week, the UFC was aware of Holloway's offer to step in should either Volkanovski or "The Korean Zombie" pull out of the UFC 273 main event, but the promotion hadn't decided whether he'd be a backup.
Volkanovski and Holloway were slated to complete their trilogy. Volkanovski took the 145-pound title from Holloway by unanimous decision in December 2019 and then won a contested split decision against the Hawaiian in a July 2020 rematch.