UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has made no secret of his intent to move up to lightweight and claim a second belt. As Champ Champ, he told the UFC 276 pre-fight press conference, he’d expect to defend both titles, because simply dominating one division isn’t keeping him busy enough. When asked about his intention to move up to lightweight, Volkanovski’s answer was simple.
“It has to be for the belt. I think that I deserve that. What’s going to motivate me? Obviously, challenges, or a massive fight, you know people take money fights or whatever it is, the real big fights obviously we’d be motivated, it’s something that I want to do. I want to go for that double champ status, but let’s worry about Max this weekend. Yeah, I definitely see myself calling for whoever has that belt.”
Volkanovski Offers To Defend Two Titles As Double Champ: “I don’t know if one division can keep me busy enough”
The lightweight championship, at present, remains vacant, with Charles Oliveira forced to vacate the belt when he missed weight ahead of his latest title defense. Oliveira is widely expected to fight for the belt when a title bout is announced, but the lightweight division is densely stacked with some of the UFC roster’s finest talent. It’s exactly the that prospect – facing the best of the best across two divisions – that interests Alexander “The Great” so much.
“There’s so many big names there. There’s big names in that division. For sure, whoever has that belt will be a big fight. Purely, just me fighting for another belt is going to be massive. There’s plenty of good fights there and I would love it.
Like I said, I don’t want to just move up and let that belt go, you see I want to be active. I just fought a few months ago and I don’t know if one division can keep me busy enough. Give me two divisions then. I’ll keep them both busy. I’ll keep both belts busy and again, I want to be active, so two divisions would definitely help with that.”
He continued, clarifying that he’s not leaving featherweight behind.
The work’s not done. We’ve got a stacked division. We’ve got a lot of people coming. Maybe we have to sit and wait a little bit, that’s why you’ve always got to have other options too. Whether there’s a double champ or whatever it is, because again, I don’t want to just give people a title shot for the sake of it. If there’s injuries and someone has to replace, alright, it makes sense. But then just getting someone that’s ranked further down for no reason, I think you’ve got to take that No. 1 spot like Max did and then you’ll get that shot. It’s been pretty clear from day one.”
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