Alexander Volkanovski won back the featherweight title with a unanimous decision victory against Diego Lopes at UFC 314 in Miami this past weekend, and in an ideal world he hopes to be able to defend it again sooner rather than later.
Former interim champ Yair Rodriguez also earned a notable win on the night by besting former two-division Bellator champ Patricio Pitbull in his UFC debut, and that’s set up the possibility of a showdown between him and Volkanovski fronting the Noche UFC event in Mexico in September.
However, while Volkanovski appears open to that fight, it seems he’d rather not wait that long to get back in the Octagon, and so he’s suggested fighting the undefeated Evloev first could be an option.
“I mean, if everything’s good, I’d probably like to go soon,” Volkanovski said after UFC 314. “Quicker than [September], to be honest. That’s probably the second fight. So maybe it can be, if I’m good, maybe I get the fight, maybe July or September. Yeah, we can maybe fit in.
“Movsar [Evloev], if they want to do that, if they want to quickly go and I feel good, maybe quick turnaround with Movsar if I don’t have busted hands. We’ll see. Like I said, that was my plan. Bang, bang, bang. But I didn’t expect to get hit this much. Credit to f*cking Diego.
“I’ve got to look at a few things. I’ll get X-rays, I’ll have a look straight away. If everything’s all good, cuts will heal pretty quick. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll be back at it. I’ll still be doing stuff even when I get back home. Like said, I’m a professional, I’m disciplined. I’ll keep working. I’ll talk to the UFC and we’ll see what happens.”
Volkanovski went on to say that he respects Rodriguez and doesn’t have a problem facing him, though it seems that the opportunity to be the first fighter to defeat Evloev appeals to him.
“Look, [Rodriguez] is a good dude. I like him a lot,” Volkanovski said. “If the UFC wants to give it to him, I ain’t gonna stop that for him. I’ll be honest, before that fight, I didn’t think if he won, he would be getting a shot. I’ll be honest, that didn’t come to mind. But now that he’s calling, I’m not going to be the one to say no. I’m going to leave everything to the UFC.
“Obviously, you’ve got guys like Movsar, who’s undefeated. I’d love to take that zero. We’ve got to see what the UFC say. I even seen him tweeting that he wants to fight someone in May and doing all this sort of stuff, so maybe he’s had the chats and they want him to have one more fight. So I don’t know that situation, but I’ll see how things are. I’d love to say I want to get straight back in there. I still do. But I’m gonna have to maybe look at a couple of things.”
