Max Holloway '100 percent' beats Alexander Volkanovski

Farah Hannoun, Mike Bohn
| USA TODAY Sports

Henry Cejudo urges Max Holloway to remain at featherweight and challenge Alexander Volkanovski.

Volkanovski (27-5 MMA, 14-4 UFC) reclaimed the featherweight belt by defeating Diego Lopes (27-6 MMA, 6-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 314 main event at Kaseya Center in Miami.

Multiple top contenders such as UFC 314 winners Yair Rodriguez and Jean Silva, as well as Movsar Evloev, are vying for a shot at Volkanovski. However, Cejudo suggests former champion Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) instead. Although Holloway is 0-3 in title fights against Volkanovski, Cejudo sees him winning this time around.

“I feel like 145 is wide open,” Cejudo told MMA Junkie. “I feel like the person who should come back is Max Holloway. I think Max Holloway does a number on everybody at that weight class. Yes, 100 percent (he beats Volkanovski). Obviously he did get knocked out by Ilia (Topuria) too, but I just feel like his volume, I feel like he’s healthier, he’s got the better chin, and I feel like it’ll definitely be different this time around.”

Cejudo explained that he didn’t like what he saw out of Volkanovski defensively in terms of his reaction time.

“Volkanovski did look good, but if he gets touched up, I almost feel like there’s something to it,” Cejudo said. “Like he over-exaggerates when Diego was hitting him. He’s got to be careful with that. I can go back and see why is it that Ilia Topuria ended up knocking him out.

“He does a lot of things good, but he does a lot of things wrong, particularly defensively. He’s always doing this (leans back) or he’ll go for the takedown, and he’ll come up without his hands coming up, and I feel like if Diego really invested in that hook, it would be a little different.”