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Max Holloway hasn't had the best 2019. He had one of his most active years recently, fighting three times. The first one saw him lose to Dustin Poirier in an Interim Lightweight title fight. The second saw him overcome Frankie Edgar to a comfortable decision victory and he ended the year on a low, losing the Featherweight Championship to Alexander Volkanovski in his fourth title defense.
When you looked at Holloway before Bruce Buffer's announcement, he seemed optimistic about it. However, he was disappointed when the Australian came out with the unanimous decision victory.
We certainly can't blame Holloway because he was in the fight, but the decision was not controversial by any means. If anything, it was almost unanimously agreed upon that Volkanovski beat him by decision.
When speaking in the post-fight press conference, Holloway revealed that he thought he had done enough to win (H/T MMA Junkie):
“I don’t want to sound like no sore loser. I haven’t watched the tape or nothing, but I thought I had enough. But there’s two guys that opinions who matters the most and them two didn’t treat it my way. But it is what it is. We’ll be back. Like I said, I’m only 28. I’m only 28 guys and we’ll be back when I’m ready.”
He said that he thought he got all the other rounds but accepts the judges scoring it the other way:
“I thought the first round I was feeling him out, so he did what he did in the first round. Second round, I thought I was taking over, then three, four, five I thought was mine. But they saw it other ways. There’s only three opinions who matter. Like Burt Watson said, ‘Don’t leave it to the judges, they’ll make you cry.’ They made me cry twice in 2019, so let’s look forward to 2020. New year, new me.”
Holloway will get his second crack at Alexander Volkanovski later in 2020 when UFC returns to Australia. Dana White expressed an interest in booking the rematch and Volkanovski was more than open to the challenge of proving himself again.
The Australian was praised for executing a brilliant gameplan that neutralized Holloway's high-volume output. His usage of leg kicks did wonders and his power certainly helped him as he cruised his way to becoming the first Australian-born UFC Champion and the second-ever champion from the land down under.
