Volkanovski, Holloway to complete title trilogy at UFC 276

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Alexander Volkanovski has already beaten Max Holloway twice in UFC featherweight title fights, and that still wasn't enough to settle this rivalry.

That's a measure of the excitement generated by the first two bouts between these two electrifying strikers. It's also an illustration of the sport-wide respect for Volkanovski, the Australian with a 21-fight winning streak, and for Holloway, Hawaii's former 145-pound champ.

Along with being brilliant fighters, they're two well-liked guys in a sport with some unsavory characters.

Volkanovski and Holloway will go again at UFC 276 at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday night, each hoping to complete this trilogy with a statement victory.

“It’s a legacy fight,” Holloway said. “We’re on the higher end of the pound-for-pound ranks, and these fights don’t happen very often. People are calling us the main event of this card, and that’s saying a lot about how good this fight is.”

The mixed martial arts promotion's biggest event of the summer is headlined by Israel Adesanya's fifth middleweight title defense against Jared Cannonier. The UFC's typically stacked Fourth of July weekend card also features Brazilian kickboxing star Alex Pereira against middleweight contender Sean Strickland, along with the returns of Robbie Lawler, Suga Sean O'Malley, Jim Miller and Uriah Hall.

But the most compelling matchup is Volkanovski (24-1) against Holloway (23-6), who held the featherweight belt from 2016 until Volkanovski took it from him in December 2019 with a relentless tactical performance. Holloway lost to Volkanovski for the second time in July 2020 in Abu Dhabi in a razor-thin decision.

Not many rivalries stretch to three fights when the first two bouts