Fight fans all around the world will be eagerly waiting the main event of UFC 308 this Saturday when Ilia Topuria looks to defend the featherweight belt against Max Holloway. One man that will be paying especially close attention is Alexander Volkanovski who will be in attendance at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
The former champion chose to take some time off instead of going into a rematch with Topuria after he lost the title in February. Having faced both men in the past, he’s now looking to fight for the belt once again following the result of the headliner on October 26.
However, along with only wanting to fight for gold next time out, Volkanovski has a specific date and location in mind for his return. The UFC recently announced that on February 9, the Octagon will return to Sydney, Australia.
Wanting a title fight on his home turf could be impacted by who comes out on top in the 145-pound title fight this weekend. In a recent YouTube video, Volkanovski said that Holloway reclaiming the gold may lead to an interim title fight due to the BMF belt that “Blessed” already holds.
The prospect of a fight between “The Great” and the backup fighter this weekend, Diego Lopes, has been spoken about in the past and would seemingly fit this card well based on Lopes’ previous statements.
“Obviously, I wanted Sydney right, I want to fight in Sydney. If Max wins, does he fight in Sydney? I think he does, I think he would fight in Sydney but is he going to do BMF? Is he going to do lightweight? I doubt he’s going to want to do a featherweight straight away. I reckon he’s going to want to do lightweight, I’m just trying to be realistic with this one. So does that open doors for an interim? Yeah, I think so because I want to fight in Sydney and obviously I did that when I was doing the lightweight thing. I let them boys, Josh Emmett and Yair do their interim fight so I’m sure that’s something we could do and while he does his thing and then we just fight whenever we can.”
Volkanovski also stated that his hopes of fighting in Sydney will likely go out the window if Topuria retains this weekend with bringing the belt back to Spain being a key priority for the UFC right now.
“If Ilia wins, does he fight in Sydney? No, let’s be real. He’s not going to fight in Sydney.”
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