You'd probably have to look inside Holloway's own camp to find someone who's more closely scrutinised the Hawaiian than Lopez, who's steered UFC featherweight champ Alex Volkanovski to two victories over the former long-reigning champ.

Volkanovski, a former Warilla-Lake South Gorillas, first dethroned Holloway in December 2019 by a convincing unanimous decision, but Holloway's previous dominance of the division made a rematch fait accompli.

Their second bout in July this year was a much more even contest that ended in a split-decision win to the Aussie, the closeness seeing some clamour for a trilogy fight.

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Lopez feels a trilogy could happen down the road - "to me Max is that hardest guy in the division, I think there's Alex, Max and then [a gap] to everyone else" - but the pair are happy to turn their attention to a rejuvenated Brian Ortega.

A fight with the Californian is yet to be locked in, but they're tipped to face each other early next year - possibly in Australia.

"It's good to not have to watch [Holloway's] tapes and not have to do the same game plans over and over," Lopez said.

"It's good to have someone new, someone challenging, we'll probably bring in some different guys into camp this time.

"Alex and I are both looking forward to the challenge and getting back into that cage, hopefully with some sort of normality, early next year."

A new-look Ortega - both physically and stylistically - had his way with 'Korean Zombie' Chan Sung Jung last month in a sensational return from almost two years out of the cage.

Ortega was dismantled by Holloway in his first shot at featherweight gold in December 2018, but Lopez says there's no doubt the 29-year-old has returned from the lay-off a better fighter.

"We had a bit of a watch party at my place and we probably all thought the Zombie was going to get in front to be honest, but Ortega came out and looked very impressive," Lopez said.

"His striking's evolved a lot. I think he was just going on his basic fight instinct, he's changed his whole camp and he's obviously gone to some good strikers and his striking's improved by leaps and bounds.

"He's obviously tough. If you watch a lot of his fights he's losing and he comes back with something crazy, a crazy knockout or crazy submission.

"He's a pretty dangerous fighter but I still think Alex's striking is way above his. I think that's where he'll shine."

After fighting in an empty 'Fight Island' arena in Abu Dhabi last outing, the pair remain hopeful the bout could take place in Australia in front of a crowd.

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UFC president Dana White has floated the idea given Australia having the COVID pandemic in hand. The State of Origin decider in Queensland took place in front of a full house in Brisbane, while game two in Sydney saw 40,000 fans.

Boxing star Tim Tsyzu's upcoming bout with Bowyn Morgan, co-headlined with the Mark Hunt Paul Gallen showdown - is also set to take place in front a crowd at Bankwest Stadium next month.

Lopez said it's certainly preferable to another isolation camp and fight in am empty arena like his charge's last bout with Holloway.

"The [no] crowd was big," Lopez said.

"Alex is usually so cool and level-headed but not having the crowd, he was probably overly cool. There are talks but it all depends on quarantine situation.

"I think Australia's one of the prime countries to open up and have a crowd. We'd be one of the few places in the world that could open up to have a UFC event.

"The UFC have said that so hopefully they can come over and have that fight in February-March next year."

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