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Alexander Volkanovski is determined to recapture his UFC featherweight title, especially after recently coming to terms with the promotion's desire to see him commit to one division. Instead of pursuing gold at either lightweight or even welterweight, he will stick to 145 pounds.
He said as much during an interview with Sky Sports New Zealand, which has been shared on X/Twitter by Championship Rounds. However, instead of working toward earning a title shot, Volkanovski claims he will sit out in wait for an opportunity.
He made that explicitly clear when the interviewer asked if he would face the winner of the UFC 308 Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway featherweight title fight.
"Yeah, for sure. That's exactly what's happening. So, I can wait. But if I don't want to wait, I can do something else, or just wait. The UFC have made that clear, so that's probably what I'm going to do. I could have maybe done a lightweight fight, there's a lot of exciting fights there, but the UFC aren't big fans of floating between divisions. They're like, 'Look, you want to go to lightweight? You're going to have to probably stay there.'"
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Check out Alexander Volkanovski's comments about his career options (0:54):
Whether he will actually earn the title shot he believes he is due remains to be seen. However, he wouldn't be the only recent champion to receive a title shot following a loss, as his close friend and training partner Israel Adesanya was recently gifted a title fight with middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis.
Alexander Volkanovski has lost three title fights in his last four bouts
At one point, Alexander Volkanovski was borderline undefeated, with just one loss on his record. Unfortunately, things changed in relatively short order, which led to three losses in his most recent title fights. First, he lost to Islam Makhachev via unanimous decision at UFC 284 in a lightweight championship bout.
Check out Alexander Volkanovski's knockout loss to Ilia Topuria:
He followed that defeat by TKO'ing Yair Rodriguez to defend his featherweight strap. Afterward, he lost to Makhachev in a rematch for lightweight gold, getting knocked out in round one before another knockout loss to Ilia Topuria, which cost him his featherweight title.
