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Following Max Holloway's incredible striking masterclass against Calvin Kattar at yesterday's UFC Fight Night event, Alexander Volkanovski shared some interesting stats from his back to back wins against Holloway.
Alexander Volkanovski claimed that Holloway can't replicate such brilliant performances while facing him.
The UFC featherweight champion congratulated Holloway on his dominant win against Kattar but reminded 'Blessed' that he won't have a comfortable time inside the octagon while facing him. Alexander Volknaovski took to Twitter to share some details from his fights against Holloway that reveal that Max indeed had a tough time trying to deal with the champ compared to other opponents, including Kattar.
“Good fight @BlessedMMA but you ain’t pulling those numbers when I’m in front of you!!” – Volkanovski wrote.
Stats don't lie, or do they?
The stats shared by Alexander Volkanovski reveal that in their first fight, Holloway landed 102 out of an attempted 268 significant strikes with a conversion rate of 38%. In the rematch, which went down at Fight Island last year, Blessed managed to land a total of 132 significant strikes on the champ out of an attempted 303, with a slightly better conversion rate of 44%.
In both fights, Alexander Volkanovski had outstruck Holloway in terms of significant strikes and had a better conversion rate than the former champion. However, in the fight against Kattar, Max Holloway landed a UFC record 445 significant strikes with a 59.8% conversion rate. Holloway completely outclassed Kattar in the fight and earned himself a lopsided unanimous decision win.
Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway trilogy fight on the cards?
Looking at the stats, it seems almost obvious that Holloway didn't fare so well against Alexander Volkanovski compared to Kattar. But sometimes, even facts can deceive. Many media outlets and MMA pundits claimed that Max Holloway was the clear winner of the rematch against Volkanovski.
However, the judges awarded the victory to Volkanovski instead, despite Holloway scoring three knockdowns in the back and forth five-round thriller that went down at UFC 251.
Alexander Volkanovski is set to defend his title against Brian Ortega at UFC 260 in March and if he manages to retain the title, we are most likely to see a trilogy fight between Holloway and Volkanovski down the line.
