{"id":944838,"date":"2026-10-29T06:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944838\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T06:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:24:09","slug":"alexander-volkanovski-eyes-more-fights-beyond-title-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/944838\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski Eyes More Fights Beyond Title Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander Volkanovski is starting to get more excited about a potential fight with Arman Tsarukyan, rather than with Justin Gaethje.<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"qTNcTe\">After knocking out Movsar Evloev in round two at <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/ufc\/events\/ufc-volkanovski-vs-evloev\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 333<\/a>, the current and two-time featherweight titleholder now wants to move up and fight lightweight champion\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/fighters\/justin-gaethje\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Justin Gaethje<\/a>. If the UFC grants him the golden opportunity, he&#8217;s ready to vacate and retire after this potential superfight, win or lose.<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"lDHztC\">However, top lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/news\/arman-tsarukyan-accuses-justin-gaethje-of-ducking-him-names-opponents-vacant-title\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">believes<\/a> &#8220;The Highlight&#8221; would rather retire than fight him unless the UFC offers the American champion a massive payday to face &#8220;Batman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Why Alexander Volkanovski is Even More Interested in Fighting Tsarukyan for Lightweight Title<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"PisMfG\">Since the Armenian is so confident Gaethje will retire, Volkanovski is now getting more interested in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/news\/jean-silva-doesnt-want-alexander-volkanovski-to-move-up-believes-justin-gaethje-wont-retire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moving up<\/a> to fight Tsarukyan for the vacant 155-pound championship. During a sit-down with Ariel Helwani earlier today, the Aussie said:<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"qo06Au\">\u201cArman keeps saying that he thinks Justin is gonna retire. So if Justin really does retire, I think it&#8217;s all been settled. I&#8217;ll vacate the featherweight belt and fight Arman for the title. There it is. I&#8217;m starting to get more excited for that than the Gaethje fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"qo06Au\">Check out Alexander Volkanovski&#8217;s comments about Arman Tsarukyan below:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/arielhelwani\/status\/2115548344890302644\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\nAlexander Volkanovski Also Game To Run It Back With Ilia Topuria If He Captures Title\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"xtnWAr\">Alexander Volkanovski also told Ariel Helwani that if the company allows him to move up to lightweight once again, he will first vacate his featherweight throne.<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"wxpQT6\">After <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/opinion\/previewing-a-potential-justin-gaethje-vs-alexander-volkanovski-fight\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">returning<\/a> to 155 pounds, if he manages to capture the strap right away and becomes a two-division champion, he&#8217;s going to discuss with the promotion whether they will want him to vacate and retire or defend his title a couple of times.<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"WMcUUF\">Lastly, the Aussie added that if the UFC wants him to go again after winning the second belt, he is open to a rematch with Ilia Topuria or other matchups in the division and is ready to do whatever pleases the fans and UFC brass.<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"WMcUUF\">\n<p data-id=\"WMcUUF\">Even yesterday, Volkanovski, in an interview with Brendan Bradford, expressed interest in figting the Georgian-Spaniard again, this time in a different weight class to &#8220;get that win back.&#8221; He added that although Gaethje took Topuria&#8217;s 0 on June 14, he would still want to <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/..\/..\/news\/alexander-volkanovski-wants-ilia-topuria-rematch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">avenge his UFC 298 knockout loss<\/a> to Ilia Topuria.<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"WMcUUF\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"WMcUUF\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"wl1hHF\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-id=\"1e0RoT\">\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski is starting to get more excited about a potential fight with Arman Tsarukyan, rather than with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[34341,17501,64,63,786,8944,785,85,787],"class_list":["post-944838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-alexander-volkanovski","tag-arman-tsarukyan","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-justin-gaethje","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944838","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=944838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}