Alexander Volkanovski has outlined his plan for the first title defence of his second reign, having reclaimed the featherweight throne at UFC 314.
Volkanovski outpointed Diego Lopes in Saturday’s main event in Miami, securing scorecards of 48-47, 49-46 and 49-46. With that, the Australian won the vacant belt, after Ilia Topuria relinquished the gold in February.
Volkanovski, 36, previously held the title from 2019 until February 2024, when Topuria knocked him out. Topuria then retained the belt with a knockout of Max Holloway in October, but he now plans to move to lightweight and challenge for another strap.
As such, Volkanovski and Lopes got the chance to battle for the 145lb title, with Volkanovski surviving a second-round knockdown and sporadically staggering the Mexican-Brazilian en route to victory.
“I’m not going to do anything too crazy,” Volkanovski said at a post-fight press conference. “Everyone’s going to always get up me for that short-notice [loss to Islam Makhachev in 2023]. I’ll do it again, you know what I mean? That’s just how it is. I am this guy that challenges himself when his back’s against a wall and all the odds are stacked against him, I’m still trying to give it a crack.
“And that same guy with that same mindset and mentality turns up in the gym every single f***ing day. If I’m not going to do that s***, I wouldn’t be the champion I am. I’m okay with that. There’s no knock at all on my team for letting me do that. It was my decision. They backed me and let me do it because they know who I am and what I’m capable of.”
Also at UFC 314, Yair Rodriguez beat former Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull on points, as the latter endured a disappointing UFC debut. Now Rodriguez, who was interim champion before losing to Volkanovski in 2023, has called for a title shot in his home country of Mexico in September.
“I mean, if everything’s good, I’d probably like to go soon,” Volkanovski said. “Quicker than that, to be honest. That’s probably the second fight. So maybe it can be… if I’m good, maybe I get the fight, maybe July or September. Yeah, we can maybe fit it in.”
Movsar Evloev would be the more obvious next challenger, given the Russian is unbeaten as a professional and is 9-0 in the UFC.
“Movsar, if they want to do that, if they want to quickly go and I feel good, maybe a quick turnaround with Movsar if I don’t have busted hands,” Volkanovski said of a potential injury from his bout with Lopes.
“We’ll see. Like I said, that was my plan: bang, bang, bang [successive fights]. But I didn’t expect to get hit this much, credit to f***ing Diego.
“I’ve got to look at a few things. I’ll get X-rays, I’ll have a look straight away. If everything’s all good, cuts will heal pretty quick. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll be back at it. I’ll still be doing stuff even when I get back home. Like said, I’m a professional, I’m disciplined. I’ll keep working, I’ll talk to the UFC, and we’ll see what happens.”
Speaking in more depth on Rodriguez and Evloev, Volkanovski said: “Look, [Yair is] a good dude. I like him a lot. If the UFC wants to give it to him, I ain’t gonna stop that for him. I’ll be honest, before that fight, I didn’t think if he won he would be getting a shot. I’ll be honest, that didn’t come to mind. But now that he’s calling, I’m not going to be the one to say no. I’m going to leave everything to the UFC.
“Obviously, you’ve got guys like Movsar, who’s undefeated. I’d love to take that zero. We’ve got to see what the UFC say. I’ve even seen him tweeting that he wants to fight someone in May and doing all this sort of stuff, so maybe he’s had the chats and they want him to have one more fight. So I don’t know that situation, but I’ll see how things are.
“I’d love to say I want to get straight back in there. I still do, but I’m gonna have to maybe look at a couple of things.”
