Alex Volkanovski ‘hurt’ by Dana White’s bad judging jibe at UFC 251 – ‘I’m sure he wanted Max to win’
- ‘If you don’t like the scoring system, maybe try changing that,’ says UFC featherweight champion
- ‘To make a statement like that when you’re the boss and you know the game is a little bit of a shock,’ adds the Australian
As the saying goes, a fighter is never truly a champion until they’ve defended their title.
That certainly rings true for Alexander Volkanovski, who admits he feels an extra sense of gratification after staving off a resurgent Max Holloway in their rematch at UFC 251 earlier this month.
“To take Max out back-to-back is really saying something … he’s a great fighter,” Volkanovski told SCMP MMA. “We knew he’d make adjustments and this would be a tough fight and obviously did, he came out strong.
“We knew we had to bring it back and we did it. We had to overcome some adversity and we got the job done. It just shows you what kind of champion. To defend against Max, with two title fights against him, is pretty incredible.”
But the razor-close nature of the split-decision win has forced Volkanovski to endure a post-fight rhetoric centred around the judges’ call, rather than the Australian’s gritty response from a slow start to surge home strongly down the stretch.
