UFC featherweight champion Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski isn’t looking past his upcoming title defense against Yair Rodriguez.
Despite that, there’s a surging featherweight who can’t keep the champ’s name out of his mouth: Ilia Topuria. Volkanovski, recently appearing on DC & RC, offered a surprisingly measured reaction to Topuria’s choice to call out the champ.
UFC Featherweight Champ Alexander Volkvanovksi Reacts to Ilia Topuria Callout
“I’m hearing a lot of people mentioning other guys, Ilia fighting other guys. I’m like, ‘No, don’t do it. Just give me a guy. Give me a contender.’ To be honest, again, I’m not going to say too much, obviously I think he’s a good fighter. But the more I speak, the less I’m going to hype up the fight. I think he’s great.”
Volkanovski has long maintained that activity is his ultimate goal as UFC champ. That means, even though he already cleaned out the top contenders in the division, he wants fresh blood.
“I want [challengers]. I want to be active. I was at a stage where I was like, ‘Give me No. 1 guys, give me No. 1 guys.’ We’ve sort of cleared them, we don’t have them. So everybody’s raving on about this guy.
I’ve got Yair to worry about. I’ll worry about that first, because I see him as a much bigger threat than Ilia, so I’ll make sure I go out there and do my business.
Then if that’s on the cards, again, I want to be active, so I do definitely want that rematch with Islam, I want that lightweight fight, I want to stay active. I’ve heard people mentioning Ilia fighting other guys, but we’ll see, we’ll see what the UFC says.
For me, if people think he’s the next guy: bring it on. But I’ve got Yair to worry about.”
Yair Rodriguez’s threat level appears to be UFC consensus, with former two-division champion and frequent Volkanovski critic Henry Cejudo backing Rodriguez for the matchup, even rating him higher than dominant lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
“I know the majority of you guys are gonna go with Alexander Volkanovski, I really do.
But I think if Yair can really hone in on a lot of stuff I was talking about, he’s athletically gifted, if he’s able to do it right in that fight, I do believe that Yair Rodriguez is a much different fight than Islam Makhachev and maybe for that reason I think it’s a lot tougher of a fight.
Because this man’s gonna throw a lot more kicks. If you take him down, he’s gonna be a lot more vicious on bottom.
The biggest question that I have for a guy like Yair Rodriguez … Yair, if he can take some of that power, you don’t have to throw so much. I think I can easily see you outpoint this dude. You don’t gotta knock him out, you just gotta outpoint him.”
