{"id":944574,"date":"2026-10-29T01:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944574\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T01:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:04:14","slug":"volkanovski-favors-sterling-for-next-ufc-title-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944574\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkanovski favors Sterling for next UFC title shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski has one eye on a retirement fight<\/a> against Justin Gaethje and the other on the next wave of Featherweight contenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Great\u201d successfully defended his 145-pound title at UFC 333 last weekend, handing the previously undefeated Movsar Evloev his first professional loss with a technical knockout in the second round (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Afterward, Volkanovski expressed interest in moving back to Lightweight for one final fight against Gaethje<\/a>. The 38-year-old said he would retire regardless of the result, allowing both divisions to move forward without being held up.<\/p>\n

If that retirement fight doesn\u2019t materialize, however, Volkanovski will have to turn his attention back to the Featherweight contenders. Right now, he believes former Bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has the strongest case \u2014 provided \u201cFunk Master\u201d defeats Kevin Vallejos at UFC Qatar<\/a> on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe if Aljamain wins another fight, I feel like Aljamain deserves it more than Silva,\u201d Volkanovski told Yahoo Sports!. \u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about who deserves it more, I\u2019m going to say \u2018Aljo.\u2019 But who do I think is next? They\u2019re both worthy competitors, and they\u2019re both in a position where they\u2019ll probably go. But I think Aljamain would be the guy, especially after another win, taking a fight against a dangerous guy like Kevin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSilva\u2019s in a great position,\u201d Volkanovski added. \u201cI think he just needs to wait and see what happens with \u2018Aljo.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sterling has won consecutive Featherweight fights against Brian Ortega and Youssef Zalal. A victory over the 18-1 Vallejos would extend his winning streak to three and give him another quality name for his resume.<\/p>\n

Volkanovski isn\u2019t dismissing Silva\u2019s case, but if Sterling handles business in Qatar, \u201cThe Great\u201d believes the former champion should be standing at the front of the line.<\/p>\n

For complete UFC 333 results, coverage, and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski has one eye on a retirement fight against Justin Gaethje…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,502124,1396,179146,6656,14855],"class_list":["post-944574","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-333","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\/944574","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=944574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}