Volk Plans To Crush 3 Contenders In 1 Year

03/17/2025 08:19 AM

Volk plans to win the 145 pound belt back at UFC 314 and then defend it twice in 2025.

Alexander Volkanovski has been a bit less active than he'd like over the past year, and he'd like to make it up with a banger of a 2025.

"The Great" fought three times in 2023, taking lightweight champ Islam Makhachev to the brink of defeat in February and then following that up with a TKO of Yair Rodriguez to defend his featherweight title. A last minute replacement rematch against Islam in October ended in disaster, though: Makhachev hit him with a head kick KO. And the four months later in February 2024, Ilia Topuria knocked him out cold again.

That led Volkanovski to take some serious time out to search his soul and heal his head. He admitted in recent interviews that he considered retirement, but that will have to wait as he prepares to beat young buck Diego Lopes in a fight for the vacant 145 title at UFC 314. If he wins, he plans on welcoming all challengers, and he has an idea of who they'll be.

"I wanna be active, I talk about being active," Volk told TNT Sports. "[Patricio Pitbull] puts on a performance and the UFC want it, I wanna be active. So whether it's Lopes, Mosvar [Evloev], then [Pitbull] straight away? I wanna do that all in one year. I'm happy to fight three times this year. I can keep them all busy and give them all what they want."

"They all want a title shot? The beauty of having me a champion again, they can all have their title fight [in] their next fight. No one has to wait around. No one has to have any other fights. I'll keep yous busy."

Patricio Pitbull fights Yair Rodriguez on the undercard of UFC 314, while Movsar Evloev beat Aljamain Sterling back in December 2024 for his 9th UFC win in a row. If things go to plan for Volkanovski and he beats everyone by the end of this year, it might be time to change his nickname from "The Great" to "The Greatest."