Alexander Volkanovski vs Max Holloway III: The Decisive Denouement

Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Introduction

For the second time in the last few years, one of the greatest fighters in the world was drenched a crimson shade of red. It was far from the first time the former featherweight champion, one Max Holloway, found himself covered head-to-toe in his own blood, but, unlike the last time, his best efforts were yielding little return. He never gave up trying until the final bell, but, at the end, Holloway’s face seemed to register and accept something that had never really crossed his mind in years: That he was beaten.

It was not as if Holloway had not lost before, let alone to man who did have his hand raised that night, but, even in previous losses, Holloway had made an account of himself that he was on the same level of his opponent.

Three years ago, Dustin Poirier had met Holloway in as furious a battle the sport had ever seen; Holloway left bloodied but unbowed.

The man he met, Alexander Volkanovski, had two official victories over him. The first was a competitive contest where the Aussie’s strategical acumen made a name for itself as he was just a step ahead of Holloway all the way through; Holloway told himself he could do better. And he did: the rematch with Volkanovski was waged less than six months later. In a desperate battle between two of the greatest fighters to ever compete in MMA, Volkanovski prevailed with a decision that was only given by what felt like margins; with his early lead in the opening two rounds and meeting the man who took his belt blow-for-blow, adjustment-for-adjustment, move-for-move in the other three rounds, Holloway knew full well he hadn’t been overcome there.

With controversy and intrigue surrounding the previous bouts, the stakes for the third match were simple: The winner was the best. Both men had every reason to believe it and this was their time to prove it.

And Alexander Volkanovski separated himself from his rival with a commanding performance that simply defies description. It’s a win that could only have been made through an incredible level of talent and grit - and elevated by an opponent who was good enough to force that kind of showing into the spotlight.

That is to say, understanding the significance of this win and the purpose of both fighters involved is impossible without the first two fights as a basis. Therefore, I suggest you read my articles about the two previous installments before proceeding.

You can access my breakdowns of fight 1 and fight 2 here.

Volkanovski’s Mastery of Minimalism

I once described Alexander Volkanovski as a fighter who was systemic. That is, he was at his most potent, layered and effective when every tool worked together in tandem; with just one component, his success would be massively compromised. Throughout his contendership and title reign, Volkanovski had employed a myriad of tools on top of one another to craft his depth: a single feint from the hip could be convertible to several different kicks or punches or just a simple threat to take another lateral step to his left. While that happened, he might have been handfighting upstairs or establishing his jab. Volkanovski’s entire fight philosophy concerned itself with using minimal tools to attain maximum rewards; that is, even the most foundational weapon can be used in a tremendous amount of ways. Volkanovski is the man who epitomizes “death by one thousand threats” but will only commit to one necessary, thudding blow.

What was extremely prominent against someone like Holloway was just how many tools he had to employ all at once to keep MMA’s premier avalanche from overwhelming him at any and every point.

I’d like to think that, after almost an hour familiarizing himself with Holloway, Volkanovski had a firm grasp of his opponent’s tendencies and the danger zones. Their first fight had validated his team’s knowledge of the former champion’s swarming volume game - that longer exchanges were built in proactive layers often through Holloway’s lead hand. The rematch introduced an enormous amount of surprises - the biggest was how Holloway zeroed in on Volkanovski’s weaknesses whilst recalibrating his own offenses. Volkanovski waged a fearless counteroffensive of disciplined lateral movement and an unrelenting combination of feints - and it was still too close to call. Between two previous fights, Volkanovski had figured out the crucial timings and necessities versus Holloway, but perhaps his biggest revelation, as he entered the third meeting, was just asking himself a simple question: Why am I needing to work so hard versus just about the last fighter on earth I want to test my endurance against?

For the most part, Holloway begins the bout giving many of the same looks as the previous outing: pressing forward, threatening with teeps and kicks, and feinting with his patented lead hand - all to push Volkanovski backwards. Volkanovski, comparatively and willfully, stands at a further distance than last time - lead leg heavy. More on this in a minute.

To review the rematch again: The absolute worst places Volkanovski could be was in the pocket with Holloway or with his back on the fence, needing to rest. Holloway was adamant about returning Volkanovski’s kicks with many of his own to keep engagements going.

What became extremely prevalent was that Volkanovski was returning to the pure mitigation tactics of the first fight, but with a few twists:

First, Volkanovski had reduced his efforts to handfight Holloway’s lead hand significantly - for a reason that’ll become clearer in a second. If anything else, he decides to contend at a further distance and let Holloway come to him. Often, if Holloway started handfighting him, that was a cue for Volkanovski that an engagement was possible, so he took that as a trigger to separate or to attack himself.

Second, there weren’t nearly as many kicks being thrown off of as many feints or resets to punish Holloway’s resets as he followed Volkanovski. Due to Holloway reemploying some of his kicking tactics from the second fight at a longer range, Volkanovski seemed to accept it wasn’t a range that demanded his efforts to win if it meant compromising his stance. Only when Holloway attempted to plant did Volkanovski decide to kick and break Holloway’s stance - he then reset accordingly.

Third, Volkanovski is willfully employing his jab to calculate distance with greater frequency. More on this a bit later.

Fourth, Volkanovski’s lateral movement, like the first bout, caters itself towards Holloway’s rear hand to keep having some edge in a battle of lead hands. Holloway’s rear hand lacks the versatility to begin exchanges as proficiently as his lead and, by circling left, Volkanovski ensured he could lead with his jab first whilst narrowing down many of Holloway’s counter measures (e.g. he could expect a cross counter as a go-to response).

And fifth - and most important of all, if Holloway made a commitment forwards or behind a proactive strike, Volkanovski threw as hard as he could.

In short, Volkanovski had recontextualized how dealing with Holloway really worked: What Holloway wants, at his core, is to create an overwhelming avalanche where his nearly unlimited combination potential can batter the opponent into a helpless state off of a nearly unlimited flowchart of options. The longer and more active an engagement, the likelier Holloway was going to find something to do - a single jab paves the way for ten more different combinations and permutations. In previous fights, Volkanovski had made it his number one priority to mitigate the chance that Holloway would even find that opening, but that often came with the need to employ a significant amount of proactive activity. Whether it was comfort after two consecutive fights or some epiphany, Volkanovski had decided that he was now content to give Holloway the very start of an exchange that the Hawaiian wanted. Except, these moments would be manufactured to be as predictable as possible, and then, Volkanovski would use that exact moment to punish Holloway for trying to start - setting him back to square one.

That is, Volkanovski approached this fight as a minimalist. And a minimalist designates what the most efficient, practical methods are for the maximum rewards. Volkanovski already proved he could prevent the longer exchanges against Holloway; he already knew that he could fight at a decently high pace against his rival; he understood that Holloway was going to opportunistically seek out any opening he could get to start building - and that Holloway was always at his most vulnerable at the start of an exchange. Therefore, why not let him build at all? Stop him at the very beginning - the onus is now on him to find out how to start and everytime he tries, he will get countered.

In Mixed Martial Arts, the fighter who enforces their control of the initiative is often the one who wins. Generally, this translates to the more active, often aggressive fighters being the most dominant in the sport. But that isn’t the only way you craft initiative - if you can establish the grounds for when engagements happen and for what happens during them, then you’re able to establish your authority of the fight whether or not you’re moving on the frontfoot or the backfoot. It’s less about “how much” you do and more about “what” and “how” you do it.

I’m explaining all of this on purpose because Volkanovski doesn’t actually do much in this fight as far as a number of actions, yet he accomplishes so much because what he does is done at exactly the right moments for the ideal effect.

It’s as simple as this: When Holloway steps in, usually behind his jab, Volkanovski is going to step in and counter immediately with the right straight cross counter, among the most effective counters you can use because it meets an opponent’s entry and can close distance quickly. And what’s the easiest punch you throw off of a right straight to close the door before the engagement continues? Well, we already know about Volkanovski’s left hook and how he’ll reposition as soon as he connects.

And sometimes, it doesn’t even have to be a straight-hook combo. Volkanovski took a page from Holloway’s previous tactics and would threaten with an uppercut-hook combo to make the taller man have to think twice about his entry.

If Holloway attempts to take a superior angle, Volkanovski is employing his jab - or hooking off the jab - to evaluate and control that distance. In the oft-chance that Holloway attempted to wait on Volkanovski to close distance again, his head would be snapped back by the champion’s jab.

And while all that’s happening, Volkanovski throws out the periodic feint just to remind Holloway that he’s watching him.

There’s a lot to be said about proper utility of jabs, though the best jabs are multifaceted: they measure distance and serve as an early building block for potent, longer combinations, yet their greatest use is to manipulate rhythm. If you’re going to control the initiative or the terms of a fight’s exchanges, rhythm is the most essential component to control. And what makes Volkanovski’s jab the best in MMA is that he always is playing with rhythm as he uses it. It’s not simply just a tool to calculate distance - it can hit, it can draw counters, and it can be used as a building block for just about everything else.

And if one improvement has been made since their rematch, Volkanovski’s offensive capacity off his jab has considerably increased as he pairs it with his half-steps, level changes, and footwork to play havoc on opponents who want to stand their ground - they’ll either have to reset or their counters will be drawn out. And it gets even more potent with his improving dipping right cross - the exact same punch that was countering Holloway’s jab with tremendous regularity. These sorts of threats extenuate themselves to further Volkanovski’s command of the fight.

It’s a damned-if-you, damned-if-you-don’t dilemma: If Holloway doesn’t pursue Volkanovski, he’s liable to be backed up by Volkanovski’s mixups. If Holloway comes forward, he’ll have to consider his openings carefully and find himself countered. Even if he doesn’t get stunned by Volkanovski, he still has to consider the optics of the fight itself and how he needs to find room to outposition Volkanovski. And the fighter who has to think more to establish their rhythm is always going to be at a disadvantage and almost never have command of the fight’s initiative.

And then, in perhaps the most astonishing achievement of his many accolades from this fight, Volkanovski willfully engaged in pocket battles with Holloway - though they were meticulously crafted so that he would never be there for too much. In other words, he didn’t prove that he was necessarily a better pocket fighter than Holloway, but he did prove that knew how to craft and navigate the engagements around the pocket better than him.

Example 1: Volkanovski is already forcing Holloway to follow and times Holloway’s reset with a right. Note that as Holloway is attempting to a shift-counter check hook from southpaw, Volkanovski has stepped inside behind another dip at the exact moment Holloway tries to counter to blast him with a 2-1.

Holloway manages to create a collar tie and fires back, but moments like these epitomize how Volkanovski understood that, as long as he controls the start of the engagement, he could beat Holloway even in the latter’s home turf.

Example 2: Volkanovski uses his jab and hop-steps to slide in-and-out of exchanges long before they can continue. The jabs also force Holloway’s guard up for Volkanovski to land and have enough time to retreat from the counters. This is what it means to enter and exit the pocket effectively.

And just in case Holloway forgot, Volkanovski still had his full arsenal of other tricks: striking into the clinch, attacking off breaks, shifting between stances and strikes, et cetera.

As a result of all of the above, there are entire sections of the fight where Volkanovski could afford breathers and just wait for Holloway to make a committed action - and what else is demonstrative that you have control of the engagements than that?

The Desperate Measures of Max Holloway

What is understated about this fight in its aftermath is that, even when his face was turning into a bloody stain, Holloway never conceded that was going to lose until it was over. Although Volkanovski had established control over Holloway in such a way that the latter couldn’t afford to be anything less than perfect, never once did Volkanovski relent in his situational awareness because he was still standing in front of -the- fighter with the greatest level of offensive creativity and depth in the sport. Again, an inch could become a yard.

Whether or not speculations of Holloway being somewhat diminished or strategically flawed for this one are correct or not (and, personally, I don’t subscribe to those notions too much), just about any other fighter on the roster wouldn’t have been able to shut down Holloway to this extent if they weren’t on point as Volkanovski was. These moments - along with Holloway still being able to back him to the fence - earned him enough respect that Volkanovski himself couldn’t afford to be less than perfect either.

To that end, Volkanovski still made concentrated efforts to shut down Holloway’s offenses if they risked even establishing too much momentum. The distance Volkanovski waited at usually sufficed to see Holloway’s kicks coming, but, sometimes, he stepped in to counter them too.

Although Holloway had made evident strides in defending Volkanovski’s wrestling in the clinch and had enough ability to fight in the clinch with him, Volkanovski weaponized tie-ups to smother Holloway consistently. Even if he wasn’t the one who initiated them, he was adamant at turning Holloway towards the fence and pinning him there - and would teach him some lessons once the challenger’s back was to the fence.

The only true flaw in Volkanovski’s entire showing was that he still got backed up to the fence, yet his counters and the threat of the clinch are often what kept him safe. That said, these moments were more demonstrative of one of Holloway’s greatest stylistic shortcomings.

Although Holloway himself is more versatile than the classification would suggest, he has, and always has been, a swarmer at his best. While swarmers are often characterized as pressure fighters amongst offensive archetypes, the objectives of a pressure fighter differs from those of a swarmer.

A pressure fighter’s objective lies in methodically controlling their opponent with the threat of their aggression. They will systemically pin their opponent and attempt to limit their options to the point of passivity effectively - if they need to use volume for it, they can.

A swarmer is less sophisticated than that - they are there to be as overwhelming and overbearing as possible. The aggression, pace, and volume don’t cease - sometimes to the point of recklessness - but they are given no choice to fight back.

In layman’s terms, although pressurers and swarmers can share similar attributes and skillsets, the principles that they fight under are distinguished in regards to their opponents: pressure fighters give their opponent’s limited agency, but will immediately punish them for attempting to get one step ahead; they are left one step behind and permanently focused on how to escape. The swarmers, comparatively, brutalize and torture their opponents down into a broken husk with no chances given to think and, eventually, to act.

A decent way to distinguish this is by how the fighter in question uses the fence: Is it a weapon to keep the opponent pinned with limited movement? Or is it just the residential stomping grounds of the cage’s relentless terminators?

In other words, watch how Petr Yan weaponizes the ring against the likes of Cory Sandhagen or Jimmie Rivera - and then compare to what a Matt Brown does.

Why am I bringing up Max Holloway as a swarmer? Because, despite his improved cagecraft and even greater strides in his mixups, unless Holloway can pierce through his opponent’s defenses and unleash his full arsenal, he isn’t the most prolific at controlling nor keeping an opponent on the fence. It’s understandable against someone who has worked as much as Volkanovski has to shut down Holloway, though it has remained one of Holloway’s career long imperfections. When you consider how often Holloway did manage to corner Volkanovski across all three fights, it is indicative that a fighter dedicated to pressure specifically might have found success that Holloway didn’t*.

*This isn’t to say that one style is or is not better than one another, especially in MMA. Even the best pressure fighters will give their opponents one too many chances at moments. It’s only that, in this specific context, a savvy cagecutting threat might be an interesting challenge for Volkanovski.

Nonetheless, I think the success of this performance in relation to the level of the opponent speaks to how incredible of a showing it was. You would be hard-pressed to find better.

Conclusion

Combat sports are a bittersweet affair; you are seldom unamazed by the circumstances and character on display, yet, with these underappreciated athletes and events, there are always going to be forgotten elements. History is never kind to its losers, and that applies all the same to fighters. Officially, Volkanovski holds three wins over Max Holloway, yet those numbers simply do not tell the story whatsoever - they fail to embody how significant this rivalry was and what it unveiled about the men entwined within it. They don’t reflect the confident mitigation of a dangerous opponent in fight one; they don’t reveal how the second battle changed everything you knew about both men - and how it elevated them both. They don’t encapsulate how both men forced the other to step up and how each man did - that Alexander Volkanovski could only have put on the performance of his career if he was not pushed by a man who was, in his own regard, every bit as great. The record will rightfully show that Alexander Volkanovski was the better man, but there’s so much more to it than just a winner and a loser.

I don’t know what’s next for both men and, to be frank, I don’t think that ought to be the point here. For three fights over the course of nearly three years, we witnessed two of the best to ever compete test each other in ways most pugilists do not experience. A fighter’s legacy is defined quite a bit by their victories, but who they faced and how they fought matters so much more. Whether or not Holloway will taste the same peak again or what challenge Volkanovski will endeavor towards is a conversation for another day. This rivalry tied and defined them both - any attempt to encapsulate how important it was feels like an understatement.

These two men will be remembered as the two kings of MMA’s featherweight division who separated themselves from the pack and then fought with their all to decide who was the best. Volkanovski could not have done what he’s done without Holloway - and vice versa, period.

Less than a year ago, I had argued my case as to why Petr Yan might be the best MMA fighter in the world - and now I stand corrected. Although his loss to an impeccably-well-prepared Aljamain Sterling did happen since, I still stand by my many assertions for how talented a fighter Yan is. Having said that, I doubt anyone on the roster could have done to Holloway what Volkanovski did in a similar vein. At the very top of MMA, the most elite fighters are likely to have competitive fights with one another where differences are only marginally or stylistically decided - yet Volkanovski stamped his mark on history and grasped a foothold on his throne with a better victory than anyone else could have imagined.

Alexander Volkanovski is the best fighter in MMA right now - and he’s more than willing to accommodate anyone who wants to challenge him for that title by doing everything in his power to teach them that they can’t.

He claims to be a normal, everyday person, but he’s not fooling anyone. It’s as the man himself said:

“No one can bring me down anymore.”

And I think you’d be hard-pressed to disagree right now.