Ahead of Alexander Volkanovski setting his sights on a second clash with Diego Lopes at UFC 325, retirement talks are already making the rounds. Australia’s greatest MMA champ walking away in front of a roaring home audience with the belt on his shoulder would be a dream for any fan of this sport. However,  it seems ‘The Great’ has no plans to retire anytime soon. Instead, he aims to settle the score with both Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria.

Volkanovski delivered a highly competitive performance against the Dagestani at UFC 284. However, Islam Makhachev ended up shutting ‘Volk’s lights out at UFC 294. After that brutal knockout, ‘El Matador’ also flatlined ‘The Great’ at UFC 298. Still, the Aussie champ doesn’t feel rattled by those catastrophic setbacks. If anything, he looks more motivated to chase that champ status by facing Makhachev and Topuria again before calling it quits. 

Alexander Volkanovski eyes career-defining rematches 

“I love to rematch and get them wins back on like an Islam Makhachev or Ilia Topuria.  But I’m pretty real with it, I understand I can’t call for champ-champ right now.” Alexander Volkanovski told 10 News Australia. 

Well, the Aussie legend, seeing his former opponents claiming two-division champion status, has definitely ignited his competitive fire. Now the 145 lbs kingpin wants to claim that glory for himself. But getting redemption against either Ilia Topuria or Islam Makhachev looks highly unlikely, a reality Volkanovski seems to understand as well.

During his first dominant reign, ‘The Great’ already blew two chances to grab the lightweight belt against Islam Makhachev, and now the Dagestani has become the king of welterweights. So, ‘Volk’ moving two weight classes to challenge him sounds futile, and things don’t get much better when it comes to a possible fight against ‘El Matador’ either.

Volkanovski, facing the current lightweight champion in a rematch, feels a little more realistic than fighting Makhachev at 170lbs. But let’s be honest, ‘El Matador’ won’t welcome that matchup. Topuria already made it clear that he doesn’t want to knock out ‘The Great’ once again and instead wants to “cook” with him. Also, his division already stacks contenders like Arman Tsarukyan and Justin Gaethje, plus there’s always that blockbuster Islam fight waiting.

Hence, ‘Volk’ also believes he has work to do in his own division before chasing that double champ dream he wants to fulfill.   

‘The Great’ wants to clear his division first  

In the UFC, Alexander Volkanovski has been a pretty dominant and active champion throughout his career. He begged the UFC to keep him busy after getting knocked out by Makhachev at UFC 294; that’s how deep his love for fighting runs. Well, after ‘The Great’ returned as the 145 lbs champ at UFC 314, the South Wales native told TNT Sports that he wants to fight three times a year.

Keeping that same energy, the 37-year-old champion actually wants to focus on the task ahead and then face the worthy contenders of the division, the ones Dana White snubbed during his Paramount+ CBS card announcement. So, Volkanovski believes that successfully dominating the division again might actually open the path for him to chase double champ status.

“I know I have work to do in my division. Being the champion is a real responsibility. And I take that serious, I’ve got good guys in my division, and I don’t want to hold up the division.  So, I wanna do what I need to do, and then you never know.” Volkanovski added at 10 News Australia.

“Maybe what I said, I’m planning on doing with Lopes in Sydney on Feb 1st, go do that, and then have the turnaround and get a victory over an undefeated guy. And then that’s fair enough, calling for maybe a champ champ fight then.” ‘The Great’ further revealed. 

By the undefeated guys, Volkanovski definitely implied Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy, who many fans believed deserved the matchup over Diego Lopes at UFC 325. So, it’s pretty amazing that the featherweight champ wants to give the top contenders their chances before he retires.

That said, as the former rugby player plans to fight the 145 lbs threats and still chase his dream of becoming a double champ at 37 years of age, do you think that’s possible? Let us know your ruminations regarding the same.