Can Max Holloway avoid the immediate title rematch curse?
Stop if you’ve heard this one before: The UFC is going straight to the title rematch well.
This hasn’t worked out so much for the company in recent years. Cody Garbrandt got knocked out by T.J. Dillashaw to win the bantamweight title, lost worse than the first when they went right back to a rematch, then got knocked out by Pedro Munhoz, not usually considered a KO threat, before he finally got back into the win column last month.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk was brutally finished by Rose Namajunas to lose the strawweight belt, got an immediate rematch, and lost a decision. Circumstances have been kinder to JJ than Garbrandt, as she’s managed two more title shots, but either way, a fighter who once looked invincible is still 2-4 in her past six.
Now, the UFC is running with a rematch between new featherweight titleholder Volkanovski (21-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) and former champion Holloway (21-5 MMA, 17-5 UFC). Volkanovski took a convincing decision at UFC 245 to take the belt. The five-round loss came just eight months after Holloway took a 25-minute beating from Dustin Poirier, when he attempted to go up to lightweight and fight for an interim belt.
Maybe I’m wrong here, and Holloway regains the title, leading to a classic trilogy. Holloway’s spirit is certainly willing. But you look back at where Garbrandt and Jedrzejczyk were before they both got back-to-back title shots and where they are now, and can’t help but wonder if “Blessed” ends up in the same boat.
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