Photo | Alex Volkanovski shows off impressive physique from the beach of Fight Island

UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski looks to be in the best shape of his career ahead of his rematch against Max Holloway on Saturday night.

The popular Australian is set to defend the UFC Featherweight Championship against the former king of the division after winning it from Holloway himself back at UFC 245 in December 2019.

The fight was briefly promoted to the main event slot of UFC 251 this weekend, but now that Jorge Masvidal has stepped up to challenge Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Championship, it appears as if it has been pushed back down to the co-main event.

Given how the first fight went, with Volkanovski picking up a decisive unanimous decision victory, many wonder whether or not Holloway will be able to overcome the champion just seven months on from such a resounding loss.

Holloway, who had defended the featherweight belt three times prior to losing it, claimed recently that the majority of his training for the fight has been done through Zoom calls.

“I didn’t want to put none of my coaches in harm’s way or getting arrested. Stay-at-home order in Hawaii was pretty serious. So a lot of the way I was training was exactly like this, over Zoom (video).” Holloway said on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “There were Zoom classes, and you know, the first time seeing my coaches was at the airport in Vegas and then coming here.”

However, it doesn’t appear as if Volkanovski is buying into that idea as he noted during a recent interview with ESPN.

“To be quite honest, I don’t believe that. That’s all sh*t. Whether he’s doing it to cover things on his end — I don’t want to accuse him of anything — but we had to get exemptions to train, so I couldn’t train until I got that done. So there was a lot that needed to happen for the government. Again, I’m not going to accuse him of anything, but I don’t believe that he hasn’t been training. I’m preparing for a fully prepared Max either way,” Volkanovski said.

One thing is for sure – the MMA world will be eager to see which of these two men can make a real statement on Fight Island.