{"id":507778,"date":"2026-02-27T15:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507778\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T15:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T15:21:08","slug":"alexander-volkanovski-breaks-down-where-diego-lopes-went-wrong-in-title-rematch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/507778\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski breaks down where Diego Lopes went wrong in title rematch"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has explained where Diego Lopes went wrong in their UFC 325 rematch.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Alexander Volkanovski was able to successfully retain the UFC featherweight championship when he defeated Diego Lopes for the second time. It was a comprehensive victory for \u2018The Great\u2019, and now, he will likely await the winner of the upcoming Lerone Murphy vs Movsar Evloev fight at UFC London.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Alexander Volkanovski admits he was prepared to retire if Diego Lopes rematch finished with a different outcome<\/a><\/p>\n

Many felt as if Lopes struggled to make any positive adjustments<\/a> in the rematch, which was frustrating to watch for a lot of fans, given that they didn\u2019t feel like he should have received another shot at Volkanovski in the first place.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Volkanovski opened up on what may have gone wrong for Lopes during the UFC 325 main event.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Volkanovski reflects on Lopes rematch<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring camp, we were thinking surely his team were gonna be like, \u2018Oh, we need to learn to cut off. We\u2019re gonna cut him off going this way,’\u201d Volkanovski told Demetrious Johnson in an interview on his YouTube channel. \u201cHe has to at least do that, right? But I was even saying leading up, I go, I don\u2019t know, even just cutting off \u2013 some people, yeah, you\u2019ll cut him off, but some people can do it wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike if he cuts off too close, I can just run him into big shots. Let\u2019s see what he does anyway. But obviously, we\u2019re prepared to go the other way. We\u2019ll be prepared to go both ways if we have to. I wasn\u2019t thinking that I\u2019d able to go one way the whole time. I thought he would do a better job of, no matter which way I went, probably, eventually cutting me off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have to take too much risks,\u201d Volkanovski said. \u201cI would just keep turning until he wanted to do something, and I\u2019d make him pay. He\u2019s good, but maybe he just needs that little bit more IQ or footwork, and get a better understanding. That\u2019s why that quick turnaround, it was always going to be difficult for him. That\u2019s why when people were like, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s going to cut off.\u2019 Yeah, but is he going to do it properly?\u201d<\/p>\n

Quotes via MMA Junkie<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, BJPENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has explained where Diego Lopes went wrong in their UFC 325 rematch. Earlier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-507778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507778","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=507778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}