“Bald Volk” truly is coming for everybody.
Alexander Volkanovski is seemingly lined up to challenge for Lightweight gold in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for his next time out. From there, “The Great” intends to win, making him a two-division titleholder as he remains the kingpin of the Featherweight division.
At 145 pounds, the top contender mix is muddled which has been a big factor for Volkanovksi wanting to pursue his big goal at this time. No matter how things shake out, the champ expects some unhappy customers, but won’t let it stop him from doing as he pleases.
“There’s a few of them that are just right there, eh?” Volkanovski said today (Thurs., Nov. 10, 2022) of Featherweight’s top contenders at a special UFC 281 media day (h/t MMA Fighting). “I think somebody’s gonna be a bit disappointed. There’s definitely that top 3, right? Arnold Allen, Yair Rodriguez, and Josh Emmett. Any one of those guys that misses out on something that happens there is gonna be pretty disappointed. We just gotta see what happens.
“I’ve made it clear that I want to be active and things like that and people keep questioning like, ‘Ah, can you do two divisions?” he continued. “Well, I know for a fact one division can’t keep me busy enough. So, why don’t we focus on that? Let’s be real. I’m willing to do both belts at the same time and I think I can do it because I want to fight every three months. Easy. That’s what I wanna do. I don’t want to wait for this champ-champ, I want to do it now. I’m in the best shape of my life, I’m at my peak right now. I want to take advantage of that and f—k some people up so let’s do it.”
The expectation is for Volkanovski to challenge new Lightweight titleholder, Islam Makhachev, in a big home game this coming Feb. 2023 when UFC returns to Perth, Australia. UFC 284 already has some nice match ups made for it, but none would be bigger than the clash of champions.