"That's a huge deal. Why is he not fighting?" - Chael Sonnen on Max Holloway offering to be backup for Alexander Volkanovski vs. 'The Korean Zombie'

Max Holloway (left); Alexander Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung (right) [Image courtesy - @ufc on Twitter]

Chael Sonnen is surprised that Max Holloway has offered to serve as the backup fighter for the upcoming featherweight title clash between Alexander Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung. 'The Great' and 'The Korean Zombie' are scheduled to lock horns in the headliner of UFC 273 on April 9.

Max Holloway has been medically cleared to resume training and has offered to weigh-in and serve as a backup for the featherweight title fight at UFC 273, sources close to Holloway told @bokamotoESPN. https://t.co/aN8TWFLU57

Volkanovski and Holloway were initially scheduled to fight each other at UFC 272 but 'Blessed' pulled out due to an undisclosed injury. The UFC then booked a title fight between Volkanovski and Chan Sung Jung instead. Now that he's been declared fit to train, the Hawaiian has offered to be a backup fighter for UFC 273 and Sonnen wonders why he didn't fight the champion in the first place.

'The American Gangster' feels Holloway must be in good shape if he's ready to fight for the title in April. In a recently shared video on his YouTube channel, the former UFC title challenger said:

"For max to take on that role, to be campaigning and asking for it means he's going to get his paperwork done. There's a lot involved in that, he's going to travel to the event, there's something involved with that, he's going to be in shape which means he went through a training camp and he's going to be striking distance to make weight in case he gets called, that's a huge deal. Why is he not fighting?"

Check out Sonnen's entire assessment of the situation in the video below:

Alexander Volkanovski raises doubts over 'undisclosed injury' which forced Max Holloway to withdraw from trilogy fight

Alexander Volkanovski feels Max Holloway was never injured and has raised questions about the former featherweight champ's decision to make himself available as a replacement for a fight which he was originally supposed to be a part of.

Volkanovski tweeted:

"@BlessedMMA wants to be the backup fighter for the fight he was originally scheduled to fight. so in other words…he was never injured. Just hoping he doesn’t have to fight me or fight me while I’m preparing for someone…but hey “if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying”…NO"

@BlessedMMA wants to be the backup fighter for the fight he was originally scheduled to fight.🤦🏻‍♂️ so in other words…he was never injured. Just hoping he doesn’t have to fight me or fight me while I’m preparing for someone…but hey “if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying”😆…NO

Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway have already faced each other twice, with the former emerging victorious on both occasions via decision. While Volkanovski was the outright winner of the first fight, the rematch was much closer and many analysts felt Holloway should have won the fight.