Alexander Volkanovski says Conor McGregor will be dangerous early at UFC 329 but expects his ring rust to become a significant factor if he cannot secure a quick finish against Max Holloway.
Volkanovski spoke to MMA Junkie in Washington ahead of UFC Freedom 250.
Conor hasn’t been in the game for a long time, and I think a lot of people are thinking that he’s just going to lose everything, but that’s not the case. He’s going to be dangerous. He’s obviously still going to be very sharp, very explosive, still got a good eye. Is it the exact eye he had when he was double champ and doing what he was doing? No, probably not. But, still going to be very dangerous, and I know Max is going to respect that.
Volkanovski said Holloway’s best strategy is patience.
I think Max will make the right decisions to not just get into the fire straight away, and then start to work him later in the rounds. We know Conor is very dangerous, very explosive, but that is going to wear on you, and with that big layoff, even though he’s probably training very hard, we know that that’s going to eventually wear on him and that sharpness that I reckon he still has is probably going to deteriorate a lot quicker because he’s been out of the game for so long.
McGregor won their first meeting by unanimous decision in August 2013. He returns on July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Paramount+.