Volkanovski Hit by Lopes More Times Than He Envisioned
Coming off back-to-back knockout losses against Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria, many wondered how much durability Alexander Volkanovski has left. He was able to take several strikes from Lopes and stuck to his game plan anyway to ultimately win the fight. Speaking to media members during the post-fight press conference, “The Great” said he ate leather more times than he would’ve liked (via MMAFighting).
“I mean, if everything’s good, I’d probably like to go soon,” Volkanovski said. “Quicker than that, to be honest. That’s probably the second fight. So maybe it can be, if I’m good, maybe I get the fight, maybe July or September. Yeah, we can maybe fit in. Movsar [Evloev], if they want to do that, if they want to quickly go and I feel good, maybe quick turnaround with Movsar if I don’t have busted hands. We’ll see. Like I said, that was my plan. Bang, bang, bang. But I didn’t expect to get hit this much. Credit to f*cking Diego.”
Volkanovski will now look forward to what’s next. The general consensus is that Movsar Evloev is the rightful No. 1 contender at featherweight. Yair Rodriguez has been pounding the table for another title shot, and a chance to avenge his 2023 loss to Volkanovski. We’ll see what the UFC brass decides to do in the coming months.
