The trilogy fight between the UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway is about to make history! However, it may not necessarily be the record that either fighter wanted or asked for!
Alexander Volkanovski will face Max Holloway in July for the third time. Although Volkanovski won both of their previous two fights, a lot was left to be desired from the champ. The first fight was not so close, and Volkanovski won it somewhat convincingly. But the second bout was a coin toss between the two and Volk won it by a razor-thin decision. Hence the trilogy will end the debate of who the better fighter is. But the bout will also be remembered for a not so flattering reason as well.
The trilogy will serve as the co-main event of July 2nd’s UFC 276. It will feature Israel Adesanya vs Jared Cannonier for the UFC Middleweight Championship as the headliner. With that being the case, it will become the first time where none of the three 145lbs title bouts featured as the main event of their respective cards.
Volkanovski/Holloway 3 completes the trilogy where all fights were for the FW championship and none were main events.
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 10, 2022
Max Holloway vs Alexander Volkanovski 1 took place in the co-main event of UFC 245, which featured Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington in the main event. Almost a year later, they clashed once again at UFC 251. The Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman was again in the main event. But this time, he took on Jorge Masvidal in a short notice bout at UFC Fight Island.
Has UFC lost faith in Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway 3?
Max Holloway is considered to be one of the best UFC featherweight fighters of all time. Since 2014, The Blessed One has won 14 fights in a row in the 145lbs division. During that period, He has headlined 5 PPV events. Holloway’s two clashes against Jose Aldo reportedly sold 200,000 and 230,000 PPVs at UFC 212 and UFC 218 respectively. His fight against Brain Ortega sold 270,000 PPVs.
But the sales took a nosedive for his Lightweight Interim title fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 236. It reportedly sold less than a 100,000 PPVs. The exact figure for his title defence against Frankie Edgar is yet unknown. But one can assume that it did not set the world on fire.
The picture is not much brighter for Alexander Volkanovski either. He has only main evented one PPV, which was just a month ago (UFC 273). The PPV sale for the event has not been made public. So it is unclear whether a PPV based around Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski would have done well or not. But to be fair to the UFC, they did book the bout to be the headliner for UFC 273. Unfortunately, Holloway had to step away due to an injury.
👑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘 👑@AlexVolkanovski vs @BlessedMMA is confirmed for #UFCFightWeek 🍿
— UFC (@ufc) May 10, 2022
[ #UFC276 | Sat July 2 | @TMobileArena ] pic.twitter.com/ImwrGrQ2DF
Both of their previous bouts added to the lustre of the respective cards. While the numbers for UFC 245 are not public, UFC 251 sold a reported 1.3 million PPVs. Hence, the appeal of the fight is clearly undeniable. Although it may not be the most appealing contest as a PPV main event, the fight can still attract buys under the right circumstances.