After reclaiming the featherweight title recently, Alexander Volkanovski had hoped to fight the undefeated Movsar Evloev next, but it seems the UFC has other plans.
That’s the word according to Evloev, who despite being 19-0 including a nine fight winning streak has revealed that his next match-up won’t be a title opportunity.
“Alexander Volkanovski, thank you champ for trying to fight me,” Evloev wrote on X yesterday. “I will fight in July and you fight in September, hopefully we both win and we can meet in December.”
“No risk no reward. See you guys in July, it’s ON #AbuDhabi,” Evolev wrote in a separate post.
At this stage there’s no confirmation on who either man will be fighting, but the current speculation is that Evloev may be the intended opponent for former Bellator star Aaron Pico’s debut in July.
And meanwhile, with Volkanovski’s next fight apparently taking place in September that would appear to suggest he could be set to headline the annual Noche UFC pay-per-view event to mark Mexican Independence Day in a rematch with Mexican star Yair Rodriguez.
If so that will be a bitter pill for Evloev to swallow, as though Rodriguez is ranked joint 4th with him in the division, ‘El Pantera’ has already suffered a TKO loss to Volkanovski in a 145lb title fight less than two years ago.
Rodriguez then went on to be submitted by Brian Ortega last year, though he has since rebounded with a unanimous decision victory against former Bellator champ Patricio Pitbull last month.
Even so, given that Evloev’s career record is unblemished, with his latest victories being over the likes of former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, recent title contender Diego Lopes and No.6 ranked Arnold Allen, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to justify why Rodriguez should get the title shot ahead of him.
Of course the real reason is that Evloev’s less eye-catching, decision-heavy fighting style isn’t as appealing to the UFC as the more action-orientated striking wizardry of Rodriguez, but once again choosing entertainment over sporting integrity is certainly ruffling some feathers amongst hardcore MMA fans.
