YouTube channel. <\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI want him to retire if he wins this one, leave it\u2026 We don\u2019t want two mates fighting each other [Volkanovski and Pimblett].\u201d<\/p>\n
MIAMI, FLORIDA – APRIL 12: Alexander Volkanovski of Australia celebrates after defeating Diego Lopes of Brazil to win the featherweight title during UFC 314 at Kaseya Center on April 12, 2025 in Miami, Florida. Megan Briggs\/Getty Images\/AFP (Photo by Megan Briggs \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA \/ Getty Images via AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
Pimblett, who throws down with Justin Gaethje for the lightweight interim strap at UFC 324 later this month, believes Volkanovski might look to face him next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard people saying that Volk might retire after this fight, because it\u2019s in Australia,\u201d said Pimblett.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you don\u2019t know, do you? People say that all the time, and then they fight again\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if I win, though, and he wins, and I get upgraded to undisputed champion, as you did, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he thinks that\u2019s the perfect opportunity to win the lightweight belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to fight Volk \u2014 I proper like him \u2014 but he\u2019ll probably look at it and think that\u2019s my best chance to become lightweight champ beating Paddy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Great\u201d, of course, has already had a crack at becoming a two-division champ at lightweight.<\/p>\n
He pushed then-lightweight king Islam Makhachev to the limit in a razor-thin decision loss at UFC 284 in Perth before suffering a first-round defeat in their rematch.<\/p>\n
Despite the setbacks, Volkanovski has maintained that he has unfinished business in the division.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, top featherweight contender Lerone Murphy admits he is still stunned he was overlooked for a title shot in favour of Lopes.<\/p>\n
Riding a 10-fight unbeaten streak, Murphy believes Volkanovski will hang up the gloves after his next fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I don\u2019t get the chance to fight Volkanovski,\u201d Murphy told Demetrious Johnson on his podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s going to retire after this fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a legend. Being able to test my skills against a legend, having his name on my resume is massive. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019m never going to be able to get now because of that. Not because I didn\u2019t earn it, because of obviously favoritism and whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy was confident that accepting a short-notice bout against Aaron Pico at UFC 319 would earn him a title shot, and he made a statement by scoring a brutal KO.<\/p>\n
Instead, it is Lopes who has been handed a rematch, leaving Murphy watching from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I thought that trade was,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, obviously, we\u2019re prizefighters, we need money, we need to fight but I want that crack at the title. That\u2019s legacy right there. That sets me up as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volkanovski told Fox Sports Australia last month that he has no plans of retiring <\/a>after his next fight and that he\u2019d be open to rematches with Makhachev and Ilia Topuria after he\u2019s taken care of business in the featherweight division.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019d be great to fight Islam again and Ilia Topruria,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just real with knowing that that can\u2019t happen right now. You know, I mean, like me calling for that just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n
Merab stunned by Yan in Instant Classic | 02:59<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to earn the position, to go for double champ and stuff like that, right? I still know that I\u2019ve got work to do in my division.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo right now, I don\u2019t want to look too far ahead, because I know if I\u2019m looking at a rematch, we\u2019re talking two, three fights away. So like, why are we even bother thinking about that right now?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Volkanovski has been urged to retire rather than chase another title following his next bout. The featherweight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-404389","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-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404389","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=404389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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