Former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski (26-4) wants one thing and that’s to get back his featherweight championship. Volkanovski dropped the title to Ilia Topuria back in February when he was stopped in the second round by the new champion.
It’s been a really tough stretch for Volkanovski that’s seen him go 1-3 in four fights after winning his first 12 bouts inside the octagon. Included in that 12-fight stretch were three wins over the newly crowned BMF champion and former featherweight champion Max Holloway.
After losing the title earlier this year, many believed that Volkanovski deserved an immediate rematch. I’m one of those folks simply because of the dominance Volk has had over the featherweight division. Also, he was doing very well in the Topuria fight until he got caught. However, Volkanovski wanted to wait until the end of the year.
In speaking on Israel Adesanya’s YouTube page, Volk said he told the UFC he wanted to fight at the end of the year. However, that’s a decision that he’s starting to regret. With Volkanovski wanting to wait, the promotion is pushing forward with Ilia Topuria – Max Holloway for the featherweight title. A date has not been finalized for that matchup.
UFC Lightweight
With a title shot not in the cards right this second, Volkanovski has his eyes on lightweight. Volkanovski has ran through and dominated virtually every top featherweight contender. He said that he really has no interest in fighting at featherweight unless the title is on the line. That being said, there are two names he likes at 155.
Those names are former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira and the other is former interim champion Dustin Poirier. Poirier has made it clear that he is only going to fight one more time before hanging up the gloves. Him and Volkanovski have a ton of respect for each other and I wouldn’t be shocked if Poirier would be interested in that matchup for his retirement fight.
Charles Oliveira is a very interesting one. Oliveira is coming off a close decision loss to Arman Tsarukyan and he’s anxious to get back inside the octagon. Should Volkanovski get a fight with Oliveira and win, he could be right in the title picture at both lightweight and featherweight. There are a lot of options for the former UFC champ but it’s clear that it’s either a featherweight title shot or a lightweight fight next.