Alexander Volkanovski beat Diego Lopes for the second time at UFC 325 in front of his home crowd in Sydney this February to start his second featherweight reign. But even before that, the Aussie made his intentions clear about his activity. At the pre-fight press conference, ‘The Great’ clearly stated that he wanted to fight “three times in 2026”. But it’s now been six months, and we are yet to see him back in action. Because of that, the UFC is now being accused of deliberately aging Volkanovski out.
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In a recent Submission Radio podcast, the host Denis Shkuratov alleged that the UFC is holding out on the 37-year-old Volkanovski so he could eventually lose to another young contender.
“I haven’t seen a guy like Alex kind of be treated like this. It’s a weird situation. Like, he’s big, but not that big that he could dictate things. Yeah. And he gets paid so much money. We know he renegotiated his contract. The UFC is almost like, ‘We’re just going to wait a couple… We’re just going to let you fight maybe once or twice a year at most because we don’t want to pay you. And hopefully, you get old enough that one of these guys will beat you.’”
Shkuratov’s frustration in this case is understandable, considering how massively Volkanovski’s next fight has been delayed. In fact, the two-time featherweight champion has also addressed the delay himself. During an interview with Australian outlet Nine.com in June, Volkanovski disclosed that his team has been “pressuring” the UFC to get him a fight soon. But so far, nothing has materialized.
For a long time, ‘The Great’s imminent title defense against Movsar Evloev has also been rumored to take place. Initially, reports emerged that the two could fight in September. But the promotion announced UFC 331: Van vs. Pantoja 2 for California in September, seemingly putting an end to those reports. Meanwhile, the featherweight division is going through rapid developments that are making the equation around Volkanovski’s next opponent even more complex.
Currently, Jean Silva and Yair Rodriguez are set to face each other in the UFC Noche main event. The winner of that matchup, especially the Brazilian, could find himself facing Volkanovski next. Aljamain Sterling also picked up an impressive victory over Youssef Zalal recently and called out the 145-pound champion, putting himself in the equation as well.
However, another set of rumors has emerged suggesting that Volkanovski could return against Evloev at UFC Abu Dhabi on October 24th, although nothing has been finalized yet. In that sense, there is definitely a lot of confusion surrounding the Aussie champion’s next title defense.
However, the fans are nothing but hopeful that they will get to see Alexander Volkanovski fight soon. And if the reports of him facing Movsar Evloev in October are true, we might get to see him back in action within a couple of months.
