While the UFC featherweight champion, Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski has not vacated his 145-pound belt, his choice to challenge for the 155-pound strap at UFC 284 has opened an interim title fight to two of the division’s top challengers. The featherweight interim title bout, between Yair Rodriguez and Josh Emmett, will take place on the same night as Volkanovski’s scheduled bout with Islam Makhachev, something the featherweight champ claims to be OK with. Volkanovski elaborated at a recent press conference.
“I’m OK with it. At the end of the day, I’m the champ so that gives me a clear guy. What a card to do it on. They get to show me who is next in the featherweight division, and here in Australia as well, so that builds that fight up anyway, but I’m more than OK with it.”
Volkanovski “More than OK” With Interim Title Fight
Volkanovski has pointed out in the past that there are no clear challengers to his dominance in the featherweight division. Volkanovski has defeated all opposition to come his way ever since his arrival in the UFC.
Recently, he dispatched former champion Max Holloway for the third time, reiterating his dominance in one of the sport’s most heavily stacked weight classes. An interim title fight, realistically, can act as a title shot eliminator for Volkanovski’s next opponent, a prospect that has looked increasingly unclear as Volkanovski powered through the likes of Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, and the Korean Zombie.
For the moment, Volkanovski, currently ranked the #1 pound-for-pound fighter on the UFC roster, is focused on capturing a second belt. After that, he anticipates defending both titles simultaneously, moving from one division to the next with ease.
“Right now, I’m going to chase that second belt so I’m focusing on that. We’ll let them do their thing, hopefully [they] put on a show, give me a clear guy and then someone will be holding that interim belt, and I’ll be happy to take them on as soon as possible.
I want to be active. I don’t want people waiting around for me and things like that, even though I don’t think they’ll need to. But I think this is good. It really sets up my next fight at featherweight.”
Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski’s next fight will be against Islam Makhachev. UFC 284 will mark Makhachev’s first defense of the lightweight title, which he captured at UFC 280 in Abu Dhabi against Charles Oliveira. Do you see Volkanovksi defending two titles at once? Let us know in the comments.
