Amid links to a lightweight return off the back of his stunning featherweight title fight loss to the incumbent, Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 earlier this year, former pound-for-pound number one, Alexander Volkanovski has revealed plans to now await the victor for the Georgian’s fight with former three-time foe, Max Holloway at UFC 308 in October.
Volkanovski, a former undisputed featherweight champion and the current number one ranked divisional contender, has been out of action since he headlined UFC 298 back in February, suffering a second round knockout defeat to the unbeaten, Ilia Topuria in Anaheim, California.
The defeat came as New South Wales native, Volkanovski’s first at the featherweight limit — having also suffered a prior first round high-kick knockout defeat to current lightweight kingpin, Islam Makhachev back in October of last year at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Alexander Volkanovski plans to land featherweight title fight next
However, amid links to a potential move to the lightweight limit and title-eliminator fight against former 155lbs gold holder, Charles Oliveira, Volkanovski has now confirmed he plans to remain at featherweight, with the hope of landing himself an immediate title re-run in his return to the Octagon.
“Yeah, for sure (a featherweight title fight next), that’s exactly what’s happening,” Alexander Volkanovski told Sky Sports New Zealand during a recent interview. “I can wait or if I don’t want to wait I can do something else. Or just wait and the UFC has made it clear and obviously that’s probably what I’m gonna do.”
“I could’ve maybe done a lightweight fight, I think there’s a lot of exciting fights there, but the UFC aren’t big fans of floating [between divisions], they’d go, ‘Look, you wanna go to lightweight, you’re gonna have to stay there.’” Alexander Volkanovski explained. “And then I might lose that featherweight title shot. It’s only a couple of months (wait), I’m sure I’ll be fine.”