Alexander Volkanovski doesn’t want fans to worry that two of the UFC’s deepest divisions will slow down if he reaches champ-champ status.
At UFC 276 media day on Wednesday, the reigning featherweight champion assured everyone that he’s not only interested in fighting for the lightweight title in the future, but that he’d like to defend that title along with his own. He won’t settle for less.
“It must be for the belt,” Volkanovski stated when asked about his desire to move up to 155 pound. “I think that I deserve that. Is there anything that will motivate me? Challenges, big fights, money fights, whatever, are what I’d love to be motivated. Let’s not forget Max, though. I would love to be a double champ. Yeah, I definitely see myself calling for whoever has that belt.”
Currently, no one holds the UFC lightweight title as the most recent champion Charles Oliveira was stripped after missing weight for a scheduled defense against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274 this past May. Although no matches have been scheduled yet, it is possible that “Do Bronx”, the lightweight champion, would participate in match talks.
Volkanovski believes that the UFC will allow him to defend both titles. If so, he sees many compelling matches at 155 pounds.
“There are so many big names here,” Volkanovski stated. “There’s big names in that division. For sure, whoever has that belt will be a big fight. It will be a huge fight for me and another belt. 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. I’ll take two divisions. They’ll be busy. I’ll keep both belts busy and again, I want to be active, so two divisions would definitely help with that.”
He will be settling his three-fight series with Max Holloway in Saturday’s co-main UFC 276. event. Volkanovski holds two wins over Holloway, but their second fight was hotly contested and the scoring of that bout remains a topic of heated discussion to this day.
Holloway can be defeated a third-time, and there are a lot of featherweights eagerly awaiting their chance.
“The work’s not done,” Volkanovski said. “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. It doesn’t matter if there is a double champ, or what it may be, but I’m not going to give anyone a title shot just for the sake. 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. Since day one, it’s been quite clear.
“My work’s definitely not done at featherweight. You’ve got a bunch of killers coming through. Josh Emmett, who’s just come off a fight. Your Kattars, Yair Rodriguez fighting Ortega, so that’s going to be big. Arnold Allen. There’s plenty of guys. There are plenty of men who can be killers. They’re not yet there, but I keep busy. In a couple of months, we might have a clear guy that everyone wants to see, so I’ll be keen to bring that on. But we’ll see what our options are after this fight.”
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