Alexander Volkanovski’s UFC title reign up in the air as champion is denied preferred fight

Alexander Volkanovski’s next fight is up in the air, after the UFC champion’s preferred challenger declared he is fighting a fellow contender this summer.

Volkanovski reclaimed the featherweight throne in April, outpointing Diego Lopes to win the belt that Ilia Topuria vacated in February. Twelve months earlier, Topuria knocked out Volkanovski to become champion, ending the Australian’s four-year reign.

And Volkanovski, looking to build a strong second stint with the belt, had made clear his desire to defend the gold against Movsar Evloev first. The Russian is unbeaten at 19-0 and last fought in December, outpointing ex-bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.

Evloev was the most obvious next challenger for Volkanovski, 36, but the 31-year-old tweeted on Thursday (22 May): “If you are a UFC fighter and believe you are the best in the world then you have fight every fight they throw at you.

“No risk no reward. See you guys in July, it’s ON #AbuDhabi.

“@alexvolkanovski thank you Champ for trying to fight me, I will fight in July and you fight in September, hopefully we both win and we can meet in December.”

It is suspected that Evloev could face new signing Aaron Pico, 28, who has joined the UFC from Bellator, while Volkanovski’s next challenger may be Yair Rodriguez through a process of elimination.

While Volkanovski beat the Mexican handily in 2023, stopping him in round three, Rodriguez recorded a significant win against former Bellator champion Patricio Pitbull last time out.

Admittedly, that decision victory only snapped a two-fight losing streak for Rodriguez, who was submitted by Brian Ortega after his defeat by Volk. However, the only fighters above the 32-year-old in the rankings are: Topuria, who has moved up to challenge for the lightweight strap; Lopes, who just lost to Volkanovski; and Max Holloway, who is booked to fight at lightweight in July (and who Volkanovski has beaten three times).

Furthermore, with the UFC having booked its pay-per-view main events for June, July and August, the next free headline slot is September’s UFC 320 in Mexico – Rodriguez’s home country. But there are ongoing issues with the new Arena Guadalajara, meaning the event could yet be moved.

UFC 320 has already suffered a setback, with a boxing super-fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Terence Crawford being moved from 12 September to 13 September, the same night as the UFC show.

That is despite a plan for UFC president Dana White to co-promote the boxing event with Saudi adviser Turki Alalshikh. With both fight cards playing out on the same night, it seems unlikely that White will be involved in Canelo vs Crawford. It is unclear what that means for his new working relationship with Alalshikh under TKO Boxing.