Alexander Volkanovski understands fans might be confused about his latest championship booking.
On Thursday, UFC CEO Dana White announced Volkanovski is set to defend his title against Diego Lopes in the main event of UFC 325, which takes place Jan. 31 in Sydney, Australia. One issue with the matchup? Volkanovski just beat Lopes this past April to win a vacant belt.
Since then, Volkanovski has waited for the first booking of his second title reign, while Lopes scored a highlight-reel knockout of Jean Silva in September to stay in contention. Still, with undefeated challengers Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy targeting Volkanovski and the champion himself having previously stated his interest in fighting either of them, the Lopes rematch is a head-scratcher. Volkanovski acknowledged as much in a YouTube video following Thursday’s news.
“Obviously, we all know that I wanted to fight earlier,” Volkanovski said. “I thought it was going to be December. We thought Lerone Murphy, December, then I guess UFC they’re waiting for Jean Silva and Lopes. Then they were saying Lopes and obviously, we’re like, we just fought that guy.
“Is there more deserving people and whatnot? Whatever, everyone knows that I’ll fight anyone, so whoever they put in front of me, I’ll do, but there were questions. Are we waiting, are we going to do Sydney, because that’s the only reason that I waited because I thought it would be December, but then they’re like, ‘We’ll give you Sydney.’ I’m like, alright, I’ll wait for that. Then it was looking like it wasn’t going to happen, but then did happen, which was great.”
Murphy didn’t hide his disappointment, writing on Twitter, “Missing the opportunity to fight one of featherweight’s GOATs is what hurts me the most. It’s not about who’s the best anymore. It’s about who’s most popular.” Evloev subsequently offered to face Murphy for the right to be the next No. 1 contender.
Now booked into back-to-back contests with Lopes, Volkanovski plans to make the most of the situation.
“I thought Movsar was deserving,” Volkanovski said. “Lerone Murphy, I thought they were the two guys. They were the guys I called out. UFC really wanted Lopes, but at least, hey, you you know at least everyone knows they’re in for a treat. It’s going to be a very exciting fight.
“With your Movsars and Lerones, they’re probably more deserving, but are they going to bring the fight like Lopes would? I think the fans are going to appreciate the fight that me and Lopes are going to have.”
Volkanovski’s coach Joe Lopez also addressed the rematch booking, confirming they expected to fight Evloev or Murphy next.
“I guess it was a bit of a shock to anybody, because no disrespect to Diego because I think he’s a great fighter but we just beat him,” Lopez told Submission Radio. “Movsar and Murphy, I think on paper are probably more deserving of that title shot, but we don’t call the shots, that’s up to the UFC and they’ve given us Diego, so that’s the card they’ve given us and that’s the one we’re going to play.”
As far as Lopez can tell, Lopes wasn’t available to fight in December and the UFC appeared intent on making the rematch happen. Volkanovski having the opportunity to fight in his home country of Australia was another bonus to waiting a couple more months to fight, though that still doesn’t explain why Evloev and Murphy were passed over.
It was after Lopes’ win over Silva that Lopez was given indication the rematch could happen.
“Probably, I’d say a week or two after Diego’s fight they put that on the table to us,” Lopez said. “Because initially we were going to be fighting in December. We were going to headline this December card and we were all set for that. We thought it was going to be either Movsar or Murphy or the winner out of Murphy and [Aaron Pico]. So we had that it was going to be out of Murphy or Pico and maybe Movsar, but we didn’t really have much hope on that. Then when Murphy had that spectacular KO, we said, ‘Yeah, it’s Murphy.’ And all indications and everything led to Murphy until Diego had his spectacular KO and everything changed.”
Subscribe to my channel
