Controversy

Volkanovski vs. Holloway 2 Scorecard: Did Max Holloway Really Lose at UFC 251?

Holloway hurt Volkanovski in each of the first two rounds and most of the media scored it for him. The official count went the other way, and so did two of the three judges, on a single round.

By Jashan Oct 17, 2026 · 7 min read

At a glance

1ResultVolkanovski by split decision - 48-47, 48-47, 47-48
2The judgesMark Collett and Clemens Werner for Volkanovski, David Lethaby for Holloway; referee Herb Dean
3The splitRound 5 - all three judges gave Holloway rounds 1 and 2 and Volkanovski rounds 3 and 4
4The statsSignificant strikes 137-102 to Volkanovski; takedowns 3-0; no official knockdowns
5The media18 of 27 scorecards tracked by MMADecisions had Holloway winning
6Our card48-47 Volkanovski

What was at stake

Max Holloway had been the featherweight champion since June 2017, when he beat Jose Aldo for the undisputed title, and he defended it three times: against Aldo again, Brian Ortega and Frankie Edgar. Then at UFC 245 on December 14, 2019, Alexander Volkanovski took the belt from him as the underdog, 48-47, 48-47 and 50-45.

The rematch was announced on June 9, 2020 and set as the co-main event of UFC 251 on July 11. It was Volkanovski's first defence. This time he was the favourite, at around -200 to -230 depending on the book, with Holloway at roughly +165 to +190.

The official scorecards

Each judge's card, round by round, from MMADecisions; the round-by-round summaries reported by Stadium Astro and ESPN's panel agree with it. Scores are written Volkanovski first.

Judge	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Total
Mark Collett	9-10	9-10	10-9	10-9	10-9	48-47
Clemens Werner	9-10	9-10	10-9	10-9	10-9	48-47
David Lethaby	9-10	9-10	10-9	10-9	9-10	47-48

Referee: Herb Dean. Every round was scored 10-9; there were no 10-8 rounds and no point deductions. Bold marks round 5, the only round the judges split on.

For a decision so many people still call a robbery, the cards are remarkably tidy. All three judges gave Holloway the first two rounds and Volkanovski the next two. The title came down to round 5, which Collett and Werner gave to Volkanovski and Lethaby to Holloway. None of them gave Holloway the third round.

Round by round

Round 1 - Holloway (all three judges)

Volkanovski opened with leg kicks: 13 of his 19 significant strikes landed on the legs. Holloway matched him strike for strike, 19-19, with more to the head (9-6) and the body (6-0). Late in the round Holloway landed a head kick that hurt Volkanovski; Sherdog describes it as "buckling the champion", and Cageside Press and ESPN also have it late in the round.

Round 2 - Holloway (all three judges)

Another round that was almost level on the count, 22-21 to Volkanovski, with 15 of his strikes again to the legs. But late in the round Holloway landed an uppercut that sent Volkanovski to a knee, according to Cageside Press, Sherdog and ESPN; he got straight back up. The official statistics record no knockdown in either round, but Holloway won both rounds on every card.

Round 3 - Volkanovski (all three judges)

The round that turned the fight. Holloway opened it with a flying knee, but by its end Volkanovski's lead hooks and jabs were landing, as Cageside Press and CBS Sports both describe; CBS Sports called it the round that likely decided the fight. The count was clear: 25 significant strikes to 15, 10-2 to the head, and 34 seconds of control, with one takedown attempt. Every judge gave it to Volkanovski.

Round 4 - Volkanovski (all three judges)

Volkanovski's busiest round so far: 34 significant strikes to 24, 17 of them to the legs, and the fight's first takedown. Holloway stayed close to the head, 14-15, but the kicks and the takedown made it Volkanovski's on every card.

Round 5 - Volkanovski 2-1 (Collett and Werner)

The round that decided the title. Volkanovski landed 37 significant strikes to 23, 27-13 to the head, and two takedowns from six attempts, with 38 seconds of control. Holloway landed six to the body and never tried a takedown. Collett and Werner gave the round to Volkanovski; Lethaby gave it to Holloway.

What the numbers say

The official statistics, round by round (Volkanovski first):

Round	Sig. strikes	Head	Body	Legs	Takedowns	Control
R1	19 – 19	6 – 9	0 – 6	13 – 4	0/0 – 0/0	0:00 – 0:00
R2	22 – 21	6 – 6	1 – 5	15 – 10	0/0 – 0/0	0:00 – 0:00
R3	25 – 15	10 – 2	3 – 6	12 – 7	0/1 – 0/0	0:34 – 0:00
R4	34 – 24	15 – 14	2 – 4	17 – 6	1/2 – 0/0	0:14 – 0:00
R5	37 – 23	27 – 13	0 – 6	10 – 4	2/6 – 0/0	0:38 – 0:00
Total	137 – 102	64 – 44	6 – 27	67 – 31	3/9 – 0/0	1:26 – 0:00

On the official count this is not close. Volkanovski landed more significant strikes in four rounds and tied the first, finished 137-102, and was far more accurate: half of his significant strikes landed, against 38% of Holloway's. He led to the head (64-44) and the legs (67-31), landed the fight's only three takedowns and had all 86 seconds of its control time. Holloway's clear edge was to the body, 27-6.

So why did 18 of the 27 media scorecards on MMADecisions go to Holloway? The count leaves out the two moments that defined the first half of the fight. Holloway hurt Volkanovski with a head kick at the end of round 1 and put him on a knee with an uppercut at the end of round 2, and neither shows up as an official knockdown. Holloway won those rounds on every card despite being level on strikes. With those two in hand, a scorer needed to give him only one of the last three rounds, and many saw his pressure where the numbers saw Volkanovski's volume.

Dana White was among those who disagreed. "We've got some bad judging. Has Max been in here yet? I'm sure he's devastated," he said at the post-fight press conference, as Sherdog reported.

How we scored it

Round	MMA.SOCIAL	Why
R1	10-9 Holloway	Level on significant strikes, 19-19, but the head kick that hurt Volkanovski and the body work, 6-0.
R2	10-9 Holloway	22-21 on the count, but the uppercut that put Volkanovski on a knee was the biggest moment of the round.
R3	10-9 Volkanovski	25-15 overall and 10-2 to the head after Holloway's fast start; the closest round of the five.
R4	10-9 Volkanovski	34-24 in significant strikes, the leg kicks and the takedown.
R5	10-9 Volkanovski	37-23 in significant strikes, 27-13 to the head, two takedowns and 38 seconds of control.
Total	48-47 Volkanovski

Our card matches Collett's and Werner's. Round 3 is the hardest call: Holloway started it well, and a scorer who weighted his flying knee and pressure could give it to him. But by the end of the round Volkanovski was landing the cleaner shots, and the count had him ahead by ten.

Round 5 is less difficult than its reputation. Volkanovski out-landed Holloway by 14, led 27-13 to the head, and took him down twice. We understand why Lethaby saw it differently - Holloway kept walking forward - but on what landed, it was Volkanovski's round. A fight that so many good scorers had for Holloway is not one we would call clear, but the decision is not a robbery either.

What happened next

"It was a tough fight, but he stood there and didn't really take a backward step," he said, as CBS Sports reported. "It was 2-2 heading into the last round and a close fight." He also said, as Sherdog reported: "I believe I finished that chapter."

Holloway took the defeat calmly in public. "We proved our point," he wrote two days later, as Sherdog and LowKick MMA reported. Months later he told ESPN, as Sherdog reported: "80 to 90 percent of the world thinks I won. That's what matters to them and that's what matters to me." He also said: "If you want to run it back 100 times, we can do it."

The third fight came at UFC 276 on July 2, 2022, and it settled the argument. Volkanovski won every round on every card, 50-45 three times. He went on to lose twice to Islam Makhachev at lightweight in 2023 and was knocked out by Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 in February 2024, losing the featherweight title. He won the vacant belt back against Diego Lopes at UFC 314 in April 2025 and beat Lopes again at UFC 325 in January 2026. Next, at UFC 333 on October 24, 2026, he defends it against the unbeaten Movsar Evloev.

Between the second and third fights Holloway beat Calvin Kattar and Yair Rodriguez. After the trilogy he knocked out Justin Gaethje in the last second of UFC 300 in April 2024 to win the BMF title, then challenged Topuria for the featherweight title at UFC 308 in October 2024 and was knocked out for the first time in his career. He beat Dustin Poirier in Poirier's last fight at UFC 318 in July 2025, and lost the BMF belt to Charles Oliveira at UFC 326 in March 2026.

The verdict

Volkanovski vs. Holloway 2 was decided by one round, and it is remembered as a robbery mostly because of how the first ten minutes looked: Holloway hurt Volkanovski twice and won both rounds on every card. But from the third round on, Volkanovski out-landed him in every round and landed all three of the fight's takedowns. Two of three judges, and our card, gave Volkanovski the fifth round and the fight, 48-47. Most of the media saw it the other way, and that is a fair disagreement about a close fight - not a stolen one. The trilogy, 50-45 on every card, left no doubt about who was better by then.

Full fight stats: Volkanovski vs. Holloway 2. The rest of the night: UFC 251. More: the most split decisions, the most title fights and the fighters with the most disputed losses.

Sources

Questions

Who won Volkanovski vs. Holloway 2?

Alexander Volkanovski, by split decision at UFC 251 on July 11, 2020. Mark Collett and Clemens Werner scored it 48-47 for Volkanovski and David Lethaby 48-47 for Max Holloway. It was Volkanovski's first featherweight title defence.

What was the Volkanovski vs. Holloway 2 scorecard?

All three judges gave Holloway rounds 1 and 2 and Volkanovski rounds 3 and 4. Round 5 decided it: Collett and Werner gave it to Volkanovski and Lethaby to Holloway, for totals of 48-47, 48-47 and 47-48.

Was Volkanovski vs. Holloway 2 a robbery?

Many thought so: 18 of 27 media scorecards tracked by MMADecisions had Holloway winning, and Dana White said there was "some bad judging". But Volkanovski out-landed Holloway 137 to 102 in significant strikes and landed the only three takedowns. We scored it 48-47 for Volkanovski - close, not a robbery.

Did Max Holloway knock Volkanovski down?

Holloway hurt Volkanovski twice: with a head kick late in round 1 and with an uppercut that sent him to a knee late in round 2. Neither was counted as a knockdown in the official statistics, but all three judges gave Holloway both rounds.

Did Volkanovski and Holloway fight a third time?

Yes. At UFC 276 on July 2, 2022, Volkanovski won a unanimous decision, 50-45 on all three cards, winning every round.