{"id":560510,"date":"2026-03-24T05:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560510\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T05:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T05:56:13","slug":"alexander-volkanovski-frustrated-over-ufc-not-booking-top-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560510\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski frustrated over UFC not booking top contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 1-ranked<\/a> Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight Movsar Evloev scored a controversial majority decision over Lerone Murphy in the main event of UFC London<\/a> this past weekend (Sat., May 21, 2026) inside the O2 Arena in London, England \u2014 a result that, on paper, should have solidified his spot as the next title challenger.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s frustrating reigning Featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.<\/p>\n

The Australian isn\u2019t thrilled with how things are playing out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with the Silva situation \u2014 he\u2019s yet to prove himself,\u201d Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. \u201cHe fought a top guy and lost \u2014 a guy I beat twice comfortably. If I beat him, then he goes on to lose to your Movsars and Lerone Murphys, people are going to look back and say, \u2018Why did he fight that guy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll fight whoever the UFC tells me to,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut how many times am I going to fight guys that are undeserving when there\u2019s a clear No. 1 guy? It\u2019s getting ridiculous\u2026 and it\u2019s getting to the point where it makes me look like the bad guy for not fighting the No. 1 contender.\u201d<\/p>\n

From his perspective, the division already sorted itself out.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows what type of champion I am,\u201d Volkanovski said. \u201cHow many times can I not fight the No. 1 contender? [Evloev] was already No. 1, then he fights No. 3. Those guys were clearly ahead of everyone else. Diego Lopes is No. 2, but I\u2019ve already fought him twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in his mind, the answer is simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously going to be Movsar,\u201d Volkanovski added. \u201cI\u2019m a pretty easy champ to understand, I will face the best. Even if UFC pushes someone like [Jean Silva] it would be whatever but it\u2019s gonna come to a point where it\u2019s like, what are we doing here? We\u2019re just wasting my [last few years].\u201d<\/p>\n

For Volkanovski, it\u2019s about legacy \u2014 and that means beating the best available.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the undefeated guy that has beaten all of the other contenders, all of the top guys,\u201d Volkanovski said. \u201cI know if I beat him, it\u2019s going to look very good on my resume because his record and who he has beat. I\u2019m confident he\u2019s going to beat all of the other contenders so it\u2019s going to age well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an era where champions are often accused of picking favorable matchups, Volkanovski continues to push for the toughest possible opposition \u2014 even if the UFC isn\u2019t always on the same page.<\/p>\n

The two-time Featherweight champion is targeting a return this summer (July or August) for what would be the third defense of his title in his second reign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 1-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight Movsar Evloev scored a controversial majority decision over Lerone Murphy in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,6656,14855],"class_list":["post-560510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-results","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560510","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=560510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}