![\"Alexander](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AFP__20260201__94PT93B__v1__HighRes__MmaUfcAusLopesVolkanovski-1769931523.jpg\")
Volkanovski strikes Diego Lopes, right, during their UFC 325 featherweight title fight [Steven Markham\/AFP]Saint-Denis overpowers Hooker<\/p>\nAlexander Volkanovski retains his UFC featherweight title with a unanimous decision over Diego Lopes in Australia.<\/p>\n
Published On 1 Feb 20261 Feb 2026<\/p>\n
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In front of a deafening Sydney crowd, Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight \u200cchampion Alexander Volkanovski survived a fifth-round rally attempt from Diego Lopes to win yet another unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) in their \u200drematch at UFC 325.<\/p>\n
Just \u200dlike their first meeting last April at UFC 314, Lopes (27-8 MMA, or mixed martial arts, 6-3 UFC) would not let Volkanovski (28-4 MMA, 15-3 UFC) coast easily, as the first three rounds on Sunday saw Lopes take Volkanovski\u2019s best shots and deliver some of his own. But Volkanovski retaliated with adjustments throughout, utilising the clinch to cut Lopes\u2019s cage room off.<\/p>\n
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Volkanovski\u2019s win was his first title defence \u2060during his second reign, ushering in a reinvigorated era at featherweight moving forward.<\/p>\n
But for Volkanovski, winning his first fight in his home country \u200bin nearly three years with the full backing of the Australian crowd felt different.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to stand [with Lopes] \u200dfor 25 minutes, but we got the job done,\u201d Volkanovski said.<\/p>\n
Volkanovski said he was excited to get back in the Octagon soon, saying he would \u201csee what\u2019s next\u201d with his team.<\/p>\n
Lopes was humble in defeat, although he had a visible reaction to the one judge who ruled all five rounds in Volkanovski\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think \u200dVolkanovski is one of \u2060the best in the division and has been for this long,\u201d the Brazilian competitor said.<\/p>\n
Lopes called this part of the journey \u201cstep-by-step\u201d as he prepares for an uncertain next fight after his second failed championship match against the future Hall of Fame member.<\/p>\n
Volkanovski strikes Diego Lopes, right, during their UFC 325 featherweight title fight [Steven Markham\/AFP]Saint-Denis overpowers Hooker<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, lightweight Benoit Saint-Denis of France effortlessly defeated New Zealand\u2019s Dan Hooker by second-round technical knockout (TKO) in the night\u2019s co-main event with punches from the mount position.<\/p>\n
Saint-Denis (17-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) has put himself in a firm position to remain in title contention this year with four straight wins, while Hooker (24-14 MMA, 14-10 UFC) has dropped back-to-back fights and will continue to go back to the drawing board.<\/p>\n
A \u200bdevastating right hand from lightweight Mauricio Ruffy of Brazil marked the beginning of the end of a \u200chigh-stakes featured bout opposite Rafael Fiziev of Azerbaijan. Ruffy (13-2 MMA, 4-1 UFC) secured a TKO victory with 30 seconds left in the second round, bouncing back from a loss to Saint-Denis for his eighth win in the last nine fights.<\/p>\n
As for Fiziev (13-5 MMA, 7-5 UFC), he has lost four of his last five outings since \u200chis six-match win streak was snapped in March 2023.<\/p>\n
The UFC does not have a numbered event scheduled in February, with UFC 326 scheduled for March 7 in Las Vegas. The promotion returns to Las Vegas next Saturday for its first UFC Fight Night event of the year from \u200cthe Meta APEX (formerly UFC APEX).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski retains his UFC featherweight title with a unanimous decision over Diego Lopes in Australia. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[6109,2840,49,48,641,1296,638,44,457,82],"class_list":["post-447055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-asia-pacific","tag-australia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mixed-martial-arts","tag-mma","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}