Alexander Volkanovski is working under the assumption that’s he’s not going to get an immediate featherweight title rematch against Ilia Topuria next, and so in the mean time he’s turning his attention towards ‘exciting’ fights at lightweight instead.
“In featherweight, it’s obviously just the rematch and the belt right, that’s big and then to be honest, exciting big fights,” Volkanovski said on the Freestylebender podcast. “I like that… With featherweight, I’m still that competitor where I’m like ‘This is my division, I’m getting it back, I want that win back’ but then at lightweight, let’s have some fun while we’re waiting.
“I think they’re probably going do Max [Holloway] and Ilia [in] September because I told the UFC I didn’t want to fight till later in the year; I really committed to that in my head [but] now I started training I’m like ‘I wish I didn’t tell them that’.”
Volkanovski went on to name a couple of big-name lightweights that immediately spring to mind as potential opponents.
“I want exciting fights, you know Charles Oliveira, I did call out [Dustin] Poirier after that when I thought that. He’s a great dude, we get along and I think he’s a great man, and he’s obviously a big fun fight.”
So, while some fighters might have been looking for a tune-up fight after suffering two KO losses in a row, Volkanovski is clearly still aiming high.
“There are exciting fights that I’d love to do while I’m waiting so whatever excites me. The belt excites me, the Ilia [Topuria] rematch excites me at featherweight – my next fight is for the title and that’s that. [But it’s] at lightweight where we can have a bit of fun, something exciting.”
