Having already cemented his name as one of the greatest featherweights of all time, Alexander Volkanovski has the chance to reclaim his 145lb title.
The MMA world was rocked with some surprising news last week when UFC boss, Dana White announced that featherweight champion, Ilia Topuria has vacated his title to move up to 155lbs.
And with that, White announced the UFC 314 main event in Miami will be a vacant featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and soaring Brazilian contender, Diego Lopes.
The original plan was for ‘El Matador’ to rematch Volkanovski at UFC 314, however, Volkanovski’s teammate, Dan Hooker claimed that Topuria continuously turned down the fight.
Alexander Volkanovski outlines his plan for second featherweight reign
Immediately after the news was announced, Volkanovski sent Lopes a warning message, claiming that he is going to destroy his title aspirations.
Despite Volkanovski’s confidence heading into his vacant title fight, the 36-year-old must overcome back-to-back losses for the first time in his career against Lopes who is on an impressive five-fight win streak.
Ahead of his fight against ‘The Great’, Lopes has been involved in a feud with Aljamain Sterling, after Sterling suggested that the UFC 314 title fight should’ve involved Movsar Evloev.
Although the undefeated Russian may have been unfortunate to miss out on a title fight this time around, Volkanovksi has outlined his plan for his second title reign, revealing that he will target a fight against Evlovev if he beats Lopes.
“I’m telling you that I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna win the belt and I’ll call out (Movsar Evloev) so he can probably wait if he wants to,” Volkanovski said on The Ariel Helwani show.
“I’m winning that title and I’ll fight him three months later, tell me the date that we can do it and I’ll call the shots that night… I think Movsar is definitely deserving,” he continued.
Even though Topuria has permanently moved up to 155lbs, Volkanovski believes a rematch against the 28-year-old could still happen somewhere down the line.
“We’ll see what happens, maybe we do set up a big fight with Ilia at lightweight or if he wants to come back down, maybe we can make that massive rematch. After my next fight, you are all gonna wanna see that again, trust me,” Volk added.
Alexander Volkanovski considered retirement before UFC 314 fight was booked
Despite claiming he will likely fight a few more times, especially if he reclaims the featherweight title at UFC 314, Volkanovski has admitted that he was considering retirement before he was offered a vacant title fight.
The former featherweight champion has been open with his emotions throughout the past few years, admitting that when he hasn’t got a fight to prepare for, he struggles.
“I sacrificed a lot of myself for so many years to be able to look out for my family and that’s just what it takes and I’m okay with that, especially now, the fact that I know I’m gonna be alright after (my career).
“I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be alright before, now I know I will. The time off was incredible, I started thinking, man, am I gonna go back because of how much I was enjoying it,” Volkanovski admitted.
Now nearing the end of his career, it is unclear how much longer fans will be able to enjoy ‘The Great’, however, he will surely put on another spectacle at UFC 314.