Joe Rogan Leaks Verdict on Ilia Topuria vs. Alexander Volkanovski Rematch Talks; Confirms Featherweight Champ’s Stance

Max Holloway, aka ‘Blessed,’ amazed the MMA community after he achieved a spectacular last-second knockout in the fifth round to win over Justin Gaethje and take home the BMF title at UFC 300. This knockout immediately went viral on social media and it resulted in him being expected for title fights in both lightweight and featherweight categories. Since he is in the limelight, he knows how it feels to go from a high point to a low point or vice versa in the eyes of the audience.

This is what he talked about with Joe Rogan on his JRE MMA show. The title holder became candid about the perception of the world and fans about his recent loss to Alexander Volkanovski. Holloway also discussed Volk’s loss to Ilia Topuria and how these things take a toll on the fighters.

Alexander Volkanovski was rejected by Ilia Topuria

After speaking about his loss to Volk and how fans took some time to forget about it, Holloway discussed Volk’s side of the story as well on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He described how he was training one time and the UFC was doing a promo clip and showing older clips of the fighters. “They show Volk walking out, and then the next clip is side by side of him getting knocked out by two guys [in the side-by-side clip],” the BMF title winner narrated while added that UFC is not for the weak because a fighter’s fate can change in the blink of an eye.

Rogan agreed as he mentioned, “It’s heartless how quickly your life can turn around and you’re a guy like Volk from being ‘the man’ to being dismissed. Do you know? Cause like, Ilia didn’t want another rematch.” Holloway took a jibe at Topuria and declared, “Ilia didn’t wanna fight nobody in the top fu** 15 brother.” 

Rogan was also concerned about the KO that Volkanovski received in the Makhachev fight. he said, “The question is like if you are in Volkanovski’s corner, let’s say this now because we can say it now because we could not say it after the first Islam fight. But you take a fight like the Islam fight, you get KO-ed, bad like head kick, you chill for how long?”

Notably, Bisping also advised Volk to hold the rematch with Topuria, since Volkanovski still needed to recover from the head injury because of the KO. 

Bisping advised Volkanovski to hold off on the next rematch

Michael Bisping had advised the former champion to rest and hold off on the rematch with Ilia Topuria. He gave this advice on his YouTube video and told the fighter to take some rest and heal completely from the two knockouts that he suffered within 4 months. He felt that ‘Volk’ should let Topuria fight Sean O’Malley in the next bout and Volkanovski should rest till then to have a full recovery and come down stronger.

Volk had taken to YouTube after UFC 299 and declared that he wanted to fight Topuria this year. “He [Ilia Topuria] just made short work of Volkanovski… Volkanovski wants to fight him but Sean O’Malley also wants to fight him. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t be the maddest at Sean O’Malley versus Ilia Topuria because that would give Volkanovski a chance to take a little bit of time off,” the ex-middleweight had champion said.

What do you think about the comments made by Rogan and Holloway? Let us know in the comments below.