Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski was never that interested in entertaining Henry Cejudo’s plans to jump up in weight to challenge for his third division title, previously telling “Triple C” to stay in his lane.
But if the promotion is willing to do for Volkanovski what it wouldn’t do for Jon Jones, then perhaps “The Great” would be more accommodating. Until then, the plan remains the same: take out the top featherweight contenders and become the greatest of all time.
“My eyes are on my division, I want to defend my belt against No. 1 contenders,” Volkanovski said (via Sherdog.com). “You got all these guys fighting and whoever has an impressive performance is gonna be the No. 1 contender. For Henry Cejudo to push in front of the line, in front of the No. 1 contender, there needs to be money involved. I’m not into that. For me to be GOAT of this division, you need to take out No. 1 contenders. So if someone’s gonna push in front of the line, we need to be compensated for that.”
Volkanovski will not have the luxury of discussing future fights until he first defends his 145-pound title against former featherweight champion Max Holloway in the UFC 251 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event this Sat. night (July 11, 2020) on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.
The 21-1 Aussie scored a convincing unanimous decision victory over “Blessed” at UFC 245 last December and looks to extend his win streak to 19 with another strong performance. After that, expect Cejudo to stay retired (maybe) while Zabit Magomedsharipov, Brian Ortega, and Chan Sung Jung make a run for the 145-pound strap.