Max Holloway faces Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 and just like the rest of us, former champion Alexander Volkanovski is having trouble picking a side.
Despite being the third-to-last bout of an unbelievably stacked UFC 300 card, the BMF title fight between Max Holloway and Justin Gaethje is being labeled as the ‘people’s main event’ and currently leads a fascinating fan poll as the most anticipated bout of the evening.
Max Holloway returns to lightweight to take on Justin Gaethje at UFC 300
Max Holloway makes his second foray to lightweight this weekend at UFC 300 when he takes on Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje for the silver-plated promotional BMF title.
The former featherweight champion lost his previous bout at 155lbs and now facing one of the most powerful athletes in the division, the MMA community is decidedly split on who they think will emerge victorious, including Holloway’s former rival, Alexander Volkanovski.
Alexander Volkanovski believes the bookies are underestimating Max Holloway
Former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski recently broke down all 13 fights from UFC 300 on his official YouTube channel and just like the rest of the MMA fanbase, ‘The Great’ is torn on who he thinks will get their hand raised on Saturday night.
“It’s a great fight and it’s hard to pick against Gaethje, but it’s hard to pick against Max Holloway…I can’t wait for this fight, it’s going to be exciting, I think you could say that it’s a pick-‘em.”
Whilst Volkanovski admitted that he understood why most fans were picking Gaethje to successfully defend his BMF title, the pound-for-pound great noted that his former opponent has a much better shot than people are giving him credit for:
“A lot of people are counting him [Holloway] out and I don’t know why, I think it’s just purely because he’s moving up against a powerful dude in Justin Gaethje, which is fair enough, that’s a fair assessment and I get it.”
Despite that ‘fair assessment’, one thing that Volkanovski doesn’t believe is fair is the current betting lines, which have Gaethje as a moderate favorite heading into UFC 300: “I thought the odds were going to be worse with the way people are talking, acting like Max don’t stand a chance – you’re wrong, he has a massive chance in this.”
In fact, Holloway has so much of a chance to get the upset win that Volkanovski seemingly convinced himself that ‘Blessed’ is the one to back on Saturday evening.
Alexander Volkanovski switches prediction for Holloway vs Gaethje at UFC 300
At first, Alexander Volkanovski was picking ‘The Highlight’ to defeat Max Holloway, “I am going to lean towards Justin Gaethje, [because] it’s a five rounder and you’ve seen him do well in the later rounds,” he explained.
However, despite initially “leaning towards Gaethje” to get the job done at the T-Mobile Arena on April 13, Volkanovski ultimately decided to switch his prediction to ‘Blessed’ for one key reason, durability:
“We can’t forget about Max Holloway’s chin, it’s an undefeated chin, it really is – I’ve tried cracking it, and many other people have tried cracking it – Will Justin Gaethje be the guy to finish it, I don’t know because it just doesn’t happen.”
“I don’t think his chin gets cracked so [if] you go to a decision, you’d lean towards Holloway,” and that’s exactly where the prediction switched:
“Sorry guys, it’s exciting man this is getting me [hyped] you know,” said Volkanovski, before finally putting a stamp on the breakdown: “I’m going to say my pick will be Max Holloway, that’s a tricky one, a very tricky one but I’m going to Max Holloway.”
“The guy knows how to mix it up, I think he used to be more hittable back in the day, he was always high level and really good at setting up traps but [he was] willing to be in front of you and eat some while he’s doing so. Now, he’s got a lot more angles, he uses so many more tools.”
At the time of writing, 67% of fans on Tapology are picking Justin Gaethje to win with over 55% of the community picks being for a KO finish – Max Holloway has never been knocked out in his professional career.
Max Holloway vs Justin Gaethje goes down April 13 on the main card of UFC 300, to be followed by two more title fights for the flyweight and light heavyweight straps.