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Alexander Volkanovski is no stranger to competing in a closely fought battle. In his near-perfect 25-fight career, there’s only been one that stands out and it was his last encounter with former titlist, Max Holloway, in July 2020. “The Great” defeated “Blessed” via a split decision nod that many in the community believed should have gone to Holloway.
There have been plenty of questionable decisions since then and the discussion surrounding open scoring has amplified intensely in recent months, mostly following Holly Holm’s loss to Ketlen Vieira in the UFC Vegas 55 main event last month. Ahead of Volkanovski’s trilogy bout with Holloway this Saturday night at UFC 276, he expressed his thoughts on the concept.
“I don’t mind the open scoring thing,” Volkanovski told FREESTYLEBENDER. “I don’t think it’s that bad because ... you wanna know if you’re up or if you’re not or something like that.
“You should have a good enough corner to know that if you ain’t definitely taking the round, don’t sit there thinking, ‘Ah, we’re two up,’ you gotta have the right corner. I’m lucky enough to have a corner that even if we’re pretty comfortable we’re up, if there’s rounds that are still competitive, we’re still like, ‘We want these last rounds.’”
Volkanovski and Holloway have each secured two tremendous victories since last facing each other. The four combined fights weren’t nearly as competitive as the pair’s rematch and that alone has the start of the upcoming 11th round leaving MMA fans’ mouths salivating.
Unfortunately, as great and proven as Volkanovski has become in between these Holloway bouts, the Australian likely still needs a clear victory to keep the community off his back and avoid a reaction similar to the one he received after the rematch.
“To have that open scoring, to let everyone know, then you ain’t gonna have people crying about decisions and all that,” Volkanovski said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, you knew you were behind and you couldn’t do nothing about it.’ Because I’m sick of people using it as excuses. At the end of the day, open scoring will help with that but it shouldn’t have to because you should have a good enough team and corner behind you that ain’t gonna put you in that position anyway.”
https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/6/...ng-sick-excuses-people-crying-about-decisions