Alexander Volkanovski has begun another run at featherweight after beating Diego Lopez for the vacant belt.
After an unsuccessful bid at pound-for-pound star Islam Makhachev, who was warned by Jack Della Maddalena of a welterweight move, Volk has now regained his spot at the top of the featherweight mountain.
But he will be looking at climbing the P4P rankings and taking the best fights in the division to move ahead of Alexandre Pantoja or even Dricus Du Plessis.
Photo by Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC
As the champion of his division, new UFC stars have put their hats in the ring to face off with ‘The Great’ next.
Alexander Volkanovski dismisses Patricio Pitbull and his $1 million bet call out
One name that has been outspoken since his Bellator days is recent debutant Patricio Pitbull, who lost his first fight against Yair Rodriguez but won his last bout against Daniel Ige.
Volkanovski has now responded to comments made by Pitbull about betting $1 million on a fight between the two.
Speaking on the FreeStylebender channel, he said: “Pitbull would’ve been exciting, I don’t want to be disrespectful, but it’s funny when people always act like you’re running from them, like I’ve never cared.
“I wasn’t being a d- -k, show me something and I’ll take you seriously because I know that isn’t going to happen.
“You don’t need to be talking $1 million and all this, you’ve got a tough guy in front of you, I’m like you’re lucky the million thing didn’t happen.”
When asked by Israel Adesanya, who once brutally KO’d Robert Whittaker, what the bet was all about, he explained: “He comes in and he’s like you still want to do this million… Pitbull was saying we both put a million dollars up; he was saying that he was over there in Bellator.
Now, the MMA legend is not entertaining the bout unless Patricio can produce something to get him excited.
“When you think people are trying to dodge you, they probably have bigger things on their plate.
“You lost, and now I won’t waste my time again… I’ll take it seriously when you are almost there.”
Alexander Volkanovski should fight winner of Lerone Murphy vs Aaron Pico
It was announced on the UFC Abu Dhabi broadcast that Movsar Evloev has had to withdraw from the UFC 319 co-main event against Aaron Pico, a British star on an eight-fight win streak, who has stepped up.
Lerone Murphy has flown through the featherweight rankings to number six, and a win for him will easily make him a favourite to compete for the title.
However, his opponent Pico is making his UFC debut after a successful run in Bellator, and an upset here places him as a problem for the top contenders.
The difference maker for Murphy in this fight is his precision striking, with a 54% strike accuracy so far.
While a shame to lose an intriguing co-main clash, Dana White’s promotion has served up another interesting styles clash between two young contenders.