Alexander Volkanovski can once more call himself the sole king of the featherweights, successfully unifying the divisional crowns in the main event of UFC 290 — stopping interim champion, Yair Rodríguez with a barrage of late third round ground strikes.
Volkanovski, who made his featherweight division return at UFC 290 tonight, had headlined UFC 284 back in February in Perth, Australia — suffering his first promotional loss in a unanimous decision loss to lightweight titleholder, Islam Makhachev in a close, back-and-forth unanimous judging loss.
Landing an early lead over interim champion and Chihuahua striker, Rodríguez in tonight’s title unification bout, Volkanovski mixed up his striking with his dominant wrestling at times throughout the early rounds, opening a nasty laceration on the face of the former interim champion.
And despite some good moments in the third round for Rodríguez, Volkanovski managed to counter the Mexican striking ace with a massive right hook, before following up and dumping him to the canvas courtesy of a double-leg takedown. And forcing an eventual stoppage from veteran referee, Herb Dean, Alexander Volkanovski rained down with a barrage of grounds strikes late in the third frame.
Following his title unification win at UFC 290, Volkanovski revealed he is set to go under the knife to address an arm injury, however, plans to feature for a third time this year — weighing-up both lightweight title fights with Makhachev, and a featherweight outing with Georgian contender, Ilia Topuria.
Catch the highlights from Alexander Volkanovski’s title win at UFC 290, below
STILL KING OF THE FEATHERWEIGHTS
@AlexVolkanovski stops Yair Rodriguez in Round 3!! #UFC290 pic.twitter.com/B4I8lR7WzD
— UFC (@ufc) July 9, 2023
