{"id":945374,"date":"2026-10-25T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945374\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T06:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T06:00:13","slug":"lightweight-the-only-challenge-left-for-alexander-volkanovski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/945374\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightweight the only challenge left for Alexander Volkanovski"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Volkanovski did it again at UFC 333, dominating a much younger contender in Movsar Evloev to defend his featherweight title for the seventh time over two reigns (watch the highlights here). <\/a><\/p>\n

After two bad losses to Islam Makhachev and a brutal KO by Ilia Topuria, there were a lot of questions as to whether Volk was done. This latest featherweight title run has answered those questions definitively.<\/p>\n

Now the question is what does the 38-year-old Volkanovski have left to prove? The UFC has already thrown popular brawler Diego Lopes at him twice, and now technical wrestler Evloev fell before \u201cThe Great\u201d in two rounds. Does anyone doubt he could do the same to Jean Silva and Lerone Murphy? Those fights feel as much a foregone conclusion as the second Lopes fight.<\/p>\n

Seeing Volkanovski continue to dominate at featherweight would be impressive. So few fighters are content to stay in their lane and keep defending their belt as long as possible. But watching age fell Volk rather than talent feels less satisfying than seeing him hang up the gloves on top without the typical two to three bad losses at the end of his resume.<\/p>\n

The only other intriguing option is another move up to lightweight to try and claim the 155 pound belt. There\u2019s no shame in how Volk failed to take the title when Islam Makhachev was champion. Another go against Justin Gaethje would be something to behold. Or if Gaethje retires, a fight with Arman Tsarukyan or Ilia Topuria would also be fascinating.<\/p>\n

With this latest dominant win, Volkanovski has some good options in front of him. It really depends on what the UFC is willing to do with him. True greatness has already been achieved. Double champ status is the only thing we really think is worthy of the time and effort Volk clearly puts into each training camp. Otherwise, there\u2019d be few wins better than the Evloev one to walk away on a high note.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski did it again at UFC 333, dominating a much younger contender in Movsar Evloev to defend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,322511,702],"class_list":["post-945374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-333","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945374","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=945374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}