Alexander Volkanovski expects to be busy after regaining the UFC’s 145-pound title on Saturday night.
Volk, the former longtime featherweight champion, is now a world champion once again after he triumphed over a game Diego Lopes in Miami, Florida in the UFC 314 main event on Saturday night — and as such, the 36-year-old Australian finds himself in the familiar position of having a crosshair affixed to his back as an array of contenders jockey for position to challenge him.
Speaking after his win against Patricio Pitbull on the same card, Mexico’s Yair Rodriguez — who was defeated by Volkanovski in a title bout less than two years ago — said that he has been promised a title bout by UFC brass. And while Volk doesn’t quite see that logic, he says he is ready to take on any challenge, including that of the undefeated Movsar Evloev.
“Movsar, 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,” a battle-worn Volkanovski told the media, including The Mac Life, post fifght. “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.
“Look, he’s a good dude. I like him a lot,” Volkanovski added of the Mexican contender Rodriguez. “If the UFC wants to give it to him, I ain’t gonna stop that for him. I’ll be honest, before that fight, I didn’t think if he won, he would be getting a shot. I’ll be honest, that didn’t come to mind. But now that he’s calling, I’m not going to be the one to say no. I’m going to leave everything to the UFC.”
“Obviously, you’ve got guys like Movsar, who’s undefeated. I’d love to take that zero. We’ve got to see what the UFC say. I even seen him tweeting that he wants to fight someone in May and doing all this sort of stuff, so maybe he’s had the chats and they want him to have one more fight. So I don’t know that situation, but I’ll see how things are. I’d love to say I want to get straight back in there. I still do. But I’m gonna have to maybe look at a couple of things.”
