Alexander Volkanovski hailed a "legend" by current UFC champ after impressive performance at UFC 314 against Diego Lopes

UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili has lauded Alexander Volkanovski after the Aussie's impressive win at UFC 314 against Diego Lopes. Volkanovski came out with a statement performance at UFC 314 as he was able to overpower Lopes and win back the vacant UFC featherweight gold via unanimous decision.

The five-round fight turned out to be a complete war as both fighters had each other hurt on different occasions. However, 'The Great's' championship experience and technical ability proved to be too much for Lopes, who struggled to find his rhythm throughout the bout.

After the conclusion of the pay-per-view, Dvalishvili took to X to express his appreciation for the 36-year-old UFC champion and hailed him as a legend:

"What a legend @alexvolkanovski"

Check out Merab Dvalishvili's post below:

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Merab Dvalishvili picked Alexander Volkanovski to win at UFC 314

During the UFC 316 press conference, Merab Dvalishvili revealed that he favoured Alexander Volkanovski to get his hand raised against Diego Lopes.

'The Machine' has a lot of admiration for the Aussie as the two were even seen cooking together at Volkanovski's YouTube channel. During the media day, a reporter asked Dvalishvili if he would consider fighting Lopes at featherweight in the future, should the Brazilian win the title at UFC 314, given that he has previously stated that he does not wish to fight Volkanovski as he "loves him too much".

The Georgian said:

"You put me in bad spot my friend. Yeah let's see, first I have against top opponent like Sean O'Malley. Like I said, he will have a different gameplan. I have to win this and I like Diego Lopes too but I would like to fight him. But, he's fighting Volkanovski, I think Volkanovski going to win tomorrow."

Check out Merab Dvalishvili's comments about Alexander Volkanovski below (0:57)