Volkanovski vs. Holloway 3 in works for UFC 276

UFC’s international fight week card just got another big potential title fight alongside Adesanya vs. Cannonier.

A recently leaked version of the UFC’s ‘International Fight Week’ PPV card was already looking pretty special, capped off by a potential title fight between Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier. But it looks like plans for the UFC 276 event are still ongoing, with MMA Junkie reporting that a featherweight trilogy bout between Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway is now in the works for the July 2nd date as well.

Volkanovski (24-1) is coming off the third defense of his belt, having bested the ‘Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung in a thoroughly one-sided beating back in early April. That victory made 21-straight for the Freestyle Fighting Gym talent. Volkanovski first won UFC gold with a 2019 decision over Holloway, defeating him again in a rematch seven months later.

Following the win over Jung, Volkanovski made a sweeping callout of the featherweight division, telling his fellow fighters to “get your shit together, earn that number one spot, and you’ll get it. If not, you’ll fucking miss out, it’s that simple.”

For his part, Holloway (23-6) is on a two-fight winning streak following his back-to-back losses to the ‘Great’. Following a landslide performance over Calvin Kattar in January of last year, ‘Blessed’ returned to action in November, picking up a victory over Yair Rodriguez.

Alongside the two potential title fight bookings, the UFC appears to also be pursuing a welterweight fight between rising Chechen star Khamzat Chimaev and longtime contender Nate Diaz. A women’s flyweight bout between former bantamweight champ Miesha Tate and recent contender Lauren Murphy has also been confirmed for the card.