Calvin Kattar: ‘It’s kind of crazy’ to question if Max Holloway was injured

Calvin Kattar: ‘It’s kind of crazy’ to question if Max Holloway was injured

HOUSTON – Calvin Kattar absolutely does not think Max Holloway is one to fake an injury.

Holloway was forced to withdraw from his trilogy bout against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, which was originally slated for UFC 272 in March.

Chan Sung Jung stepped in to replace Holloway and will be challenging the champ in the main event of UFC 273 on April 9. After Volkanovski received a new opponent and date for his title defense, it was reported that Holloway (23-6 MMA, 19-6 UFC) will be fit and ready to step in as a backup, which caused Volkanovski (23-1 MMA, 10-0 UFC) to accuse him of not being injured in the first place.

However, Kattar (23-5 MMA, 7-3 UFC) disagrees with that notion.

“I’m not reading too much into it,” Kattar told reporters, including MMA Junkie, backstage at UFC 271. “As a fight fan, that would have been a good matchup, watching him and the champ (Volkanovski) go back at it, third time running it. Especially after the last two. But as far as what got him ready or what not, I’m not reading too far into that.

“I feel like to question Max, it’s kind of crazy. He took the Yair (Rodriguez) fight when he didn’t really even need to. He was kind of next in line for the champ anyway, but he took it. So the champ and Max, I think those guys are two guys that don’t really dodge anybody and want to fight the best guys in the world, so I got a lot of respect for them.”

Kattar is coming off an impressive win over Giga Chikadze in the UFC on ESPN 32 headliner and offered up his own services to be a backup for the featherweight title fight if that opportunity presents itself.