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Max Holloway isn’t moving up in weight for his next fight.
The former UFC featherweight champion will get a third crack at Alexander Volkanovski and try to reclaim his 145-pound title at UFC 272 on March 5 likely in Las Vegas, according to a report posted Wednesday on ESPN.com.
UFC President Dana White told ESPN it would be one of two title fights for the pay-per-view. Bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling is set to defend his 135-pound belt against interim champion Petr Yan.
Volkanovski (23-1), ranked by the UFC as its No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter, snapped Holloway’s 13-fight win streak at 145 pounds when he won a unanimous decision at UFC 245 in December 2019.
The two fought in a rematch in Abu Dhabi at UFC 251 with Volkanovski earning a disputed split decision to retain the belt.
Holloway (23-6) has earned victories by unanimous decision against Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez to get back into the title hunt after suffering back-to-back losses for the second time in his career.
Despite losing three of his last six fights, Holloway is ranked as the UFC’s seventh-best fighter pound-for-pound.
Holloway had possible fights lined up in the UFC’s 155-pound lightweight division, but will remain at featherweight, where he is 18-5 in his UFC career.
Volkanovski is the only fighter to beat Holloway in the division in more than eight years.
Source: Star
