‘Stop Beating Up My Contenders!

Losing to “Blessed” didn’t prevent Brian Ortega and Yair Rodriguez from earning featherweight title shots, but it certainly pumped the brakes on Calvin Kattar and Arnold Allen.

Alex Volkanovski wants to clear out the featherweight division and cement himself as the greatest 145-pound champion of all time, but he’s finding the mission difficult to accomplish because former featherweight titleholder, Max Holloway, continues to spoil the rise of every available contender.

Like Arnold Allen, for example, who recently fell to “Blessed” at UFC Kansas City.

“I remember saying to him after the last fight, I just said to him, ‘Get out of my division! Stop beating up my contenders!’ I’m saying stuff like that to him,” Volkanovski told The Mac Life. “A lot of people are gonna sit there, before last [Saturday] night, ‘Oh, he’s fallen off’ and all this stuff. Nah, it’s not that. Trust me. Wait until he fights again and you’re gonna forget about that the next time. He proved it last [Saturday] night, he looked great. You feel bad too, in that situation, like ‘Why does that guy gotta be here and be in my damn division?’ Obviously Max is a cool dude, as well, great fighter. It’s a tricky situation for Max, that’s for sure, but you never know.”

Holloway recently teased a return to the lightweight division.

“Blessed” had three tries to beat Volkanovski but came up short in each attempt, though arguments were made in favor of the Hawaiian at the conclusion of this championship showdown. It’s hard to make a case for a fourth fight between the longtime rivals but that doesn’t mean Holloway is done with featherweight title shots.

But he’ll need Yair Rodriguez to upset the 145-pound apple cart at UFC 290 in July.