In the event of a successful title defense against Elijah Topuria, current UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski could move back up to lightweight to complete a trilogy with Islam Makhachev.
“I’m a realist and I don’t expect an immediate rematch,” the Australian said at a press conference in Sydney. “Right now everyone is wondering, ‘Is his time gone?’ and I’m going to remind those people who I am. After that, everyone is going to turn 180 degrees and start talking again about how I have nothing more to do at featherweight and want me to go for the lightweight title. That’s what I plan to do – I’ll go out there and deal with Elijah and then we’ll see what to do next, but I’ll definitely move up to lightweight in the near future”
Last year, Alexander Volkanovski made two unsuccessful attempts to take the UFC lightweight championship belt from Islam Makhachev, first losing to the Russian by unanimous decision in a competitive bout and then losing by knockout in a rematch.
Recall that the title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Elijah Topuria will be the main event of UFC 298, which will be held on February 17 in Anaheim.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/33813-aleks-volkanovski-sdelal-zayavlenie-o-tretem-boe-s-islamom-makhachevym.html?rand=19907
