"No idea what he's talking about" - Max Holloway reacts to Khabib Nurmagomedov saying Alexander Volkanovski has 'more fire'
Max Holloway is unbothered about Khabib Nurmagomedov picking Alexander Volkanovski as the winner of their upcoming trilogy bout at UFC 276. Nurmagomedov also stated that Volkanovski's "fire" would be a differentiating factor in the Australian's title defense against 'Blessed'.
Holloway joked that the "fire" reference could have stemmed from the featherweight champion's cooking show, Cooking with Volk. That aside, 'Blessed' believes that all doubts will be cleared come Saturday night's co-main event. The 30-year-old recently told Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole:
"None at all, you know?! I mean he is probably talking about Volkanovski having more fire because he has a cooking show or something. Maybe the fire resemblance there. But other than that I don't know man. I don't know. Khabib is Khabib. He gonna say what he gonna say and I have no idea what he's talking about, you know?! I'm here and I'm still doing it so, I can't wait. There's a lot of people saying stuff and we get to figure out if everything is true, if I still have the fire come Saturday night."
Watch Holloway's interview with Yahoo! Sports below:
Max Holloway's "killer instinct" has had time to revive, claims coach
Max Holloway lost his strap to Alexander Volkanovski in 2019 via a closely contested unanimous decision. 'Blessed' went on to lose the rematch the following year via an even closer split-decision.
Holloway has since bounced back with 'Fight of the Night' decision wins against Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez. The Hawaiian will now face Volkanovski in a highly anticipated trilogy bout, who in the meantime has recorded two title defenses against Brian Ortega and Chan Sung Jung.
According to Holloway's coach Ivan Flores, the former featherweight king's preparations are on a different level going into the trilogy fight. Flores also believes that the 30-year-old hasn't lost his "killer instinct" and instead has had time to revive it. He said during an episode of UFC 276 Embedded:
"With any athlete, the job is to get better between each fight and so forth, but with Max, he's always been ahead of the curve and learns things a little fast. Between every fight we're always getting better. But this past camp, he's been operating on this other level. He still has it, that killer instinct, and in fact I feel like it's had time to kind of revive. The motivation is purely wanting to be the best and showing he's the best."
Watch the full UFC Embedded Ep. 2 below: