October 23, 2026, 6:50 p.m. ET
Max Holloway wants you to give the name “Old Man Volk” more respect.
On Friday, Holloway gave his official UFC 333 main event prediction ahead of Saturday’s headliner between champion Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev. He sides with the current champion and his former opponent.
“With Volkanovski being Volkanovski, I think it’s a great match for him, Volk’s biggest concern is damage, damage taken,” Holloway said on his YouTube channel. “That’s his biggest concern lately. I really like Evloev. I know a lot of people keep talking about Movsar’s wrestling. It blows my mind. I know he fought Islam twice, and I know everyone just thinks about the second one, like the first one never happened. Alexander Volkanovski was wrestling one of the best 155-pound wrestlers in the world. I know Movsar is a beast. He is 20-0, but again, Alex Volkanovski is just a different animal. I definitely think people are sleeping on Alex Volkanovski, I think a lot of people, a lot of fans are still excited about Movsar’s fight and have forgotten the first fight about what Alex did to Islam.
Volkanovski’s biggest concern, according to Holloway, is not a possible discrepancy in his wrestling abilities, as some might be persuaded to believe. Instead, it comes down to one thing: damage.
“Should he be worried about the damage to Movsar? Yes,” Holloway said. “We’ve seen him hit someone and drop someone with a jab. He’s got power. This guy is strong. Is Alex going to play into this? Probably not. I think Alex is so smart. I think Alex is going to stay away, stay away, jab, jab, jab. If he wants to wrestle, I don’t think Alex will wrestle him at first. I think Alex can even make it a point to go wrestling with him in the middle rounds, just to prove, ‘I can go and wrestle with this guy here.’ I think it’s a great match for Volk. I think he goes out there and lands a lot for 25 minutes.
For what it’s worth, Holloway shared the cage three times with Volkanovski (losing all three fights). Conversely, he never faced Evloev.
UFC 333 takes place on Saturday at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi and will be streamed on Paramount+.
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