Alexander Volkanovski did the double over Diego Lopes on Saturday, securing a points win over his challenger in the main event of UFC 325.
The victory came nine months after Volkanovski beat Lopes in the same manner, with Saturday’s result extending the Australian’s second reign as featherweight champion.
The win came on home soil for Volkanovski, too, as he secured scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 50-45 in Sydney. In fact, those scores saw the 37-year-old better his first performance against Lopes, whom he outpointed 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 in April.
Volkanovski’s first fight with Lopes was for the vacant featherweight title, which Ilia Topuria had relinquished one year after knocking out Volkanovski. And the Aussie had not fought since reclaiming the gold, while Lopes bounced back in September with a stunning knockout of Jean Silva.
Still, few fans were particularly excited for Saturday’s rematch in Sydney, believing that even an ageing Volk could handle Lopes, 31, again. And that was the case, as “Alexander The Great” overcame the Brazilian for the second time with a well-rounded performance.
Volkanovski out-struck Lopes at range, intermittently tagging the younger man with hard, timely counters, and survived a few precarious grappling exchanges. He even tried to take down Lopes sporadically, as he looked to exhibit nearly all of his tools as a fighter.
“It ain’t getting any easier,” Volkanovski joked in the cage after winning. “Camp was a lot of things going on in there. We pushed through.
“Sometimes things go wrong, but I’m like: ‘Let’s go, that’s more of a challenge.’ It fires me up even more. I didn’t want to stand for 25 minutes, I’ll be honest, but we got the job done so it’s all good.
“We were ready for him to make the right adjustments. Our last fight, we moved to the right and we did a good job cutting that off straight away. I make the adjustments, that’s what makes a true champion.
“You’ve got guys that are talented, they’ve got all this stuff. But it’s all the stuff: everyone that has the grit, the determination, hard work, sacrifice, [can] make the adjustments on the fly, stay composed in the fire. I’ve got them all.”
In the co-main event, fan favourite Dan Hooker suffered a TKO loss to Benoit Saint-Denis, with the Frenchman finishing the Kiwi fighter late in the second round.
