{"id":317520,"date":"2025-11-30T00:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T00:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317520\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T00:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T00:32:08","slug":"ufc-really-wanted-lopes-alexander-volkanovski-reacts-to-ufc-325-title-rematch-agrees-other-contenders-were-more-deserving-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/317520\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018UFC really wanted Lopes\u2019 \u2014 Alexander Volkanovski reacts to UFC 325 title rematch, agrees other contenders were \u2018more deserving\u2019 | Video"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Alexander Volkanovski thought he was going to defend his title against a new challenger next, but the reigning UFC featherweight champion is happy to give the promotion what it wants.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Earlier this week, UFC CEO Dana White revealed that Volkanovski\u2019s next title defense would come against popular contender Diego Lopes at UFC 325 on Jan. 31 in Sydney, Australia. It\u2019s a matchup that would usually get the people going, but we just saw Volkanovski defeat Lopes via unanimous decision at UFC 314 this past April. Volkanovski hasn\u2019t competed since then while Lopes rebounded with a recent TKO victory over Jean Silva back in September (watch it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-espn-plus-fight-pass-events-schedule-mma\/389243\/highlights-noche-ufc-3-video-results-espn-texas-lopes-silva-spinning-elbow-knockout\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HERE<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The bigger issue is that the UFC\u2019s featherweight division is currently flush with readily-available contenders, including Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy. Both fighters are on a nine-fight win streak inside of the Octagon and are more than deserving of their first-ever UFC title shots. Even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-events-ppv\/383477\/title-shot-alexander-volkanovski-accepts-lerone-murphys-call-out-after-epic-ko-win-see-you-in-december\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Volkanovski thought he\u2019d be fighting one of them<\/a> his next time out, but UFC had different plans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On Friday, Volkanovski took to his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KVBeT1rEkDE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube channel<\/a> to officially announce his rematch with Lopes at UFC 325 and comment on UFC\u2019s decision to skip Evloev and Murphy. Check it out above\/below and let us know your final thoughts!<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201dUFC really wanted Lopes, but at least everyone knows they\u2019re in for a treat,\u201d said Volkanovski.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cWith Movsar and Lerone, they\u2019re more deserving,\u201d he added. \u201cBut are they gonna bring the fight like Lopes would? I think the fans are gonna appreciate the fight that me and Lopes are gonna have.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski thought he was going to defend his title against a new challenger next, but the reigning&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,178239,179146],"class_list":{"0":"post-317520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news","15":"tag-ufc-on-cbs","16":"tag-ufc-on-paramount"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}