Volkanovski beats Lopes again to retain UFC featherweight title
Father Time is apparently no match for Alexander Volkanovski.
The UFC featherweight champion retained his title Saturday night, defeating Diego Lopes via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) in the UFC 325 main event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
Volkanovski beat Lopes for the second time in nine months. The Australian also won a unanimous decision at UFC 314 last April to capture the vacant 145-pound championship. This was the first defense of Volkanovski's second title reign.
"It ain't getting any easier, I can tell you that," Volkanovski, 37, said in his postfight interview. "(During) camp, (there) was a lot of things going on. We pushed through."
Volkanovski is now tied with Jose Aldo for the most title-fight wins in UFC featherweight history (eight).
Volkanovski controlled the action and outworked Lopes throughout much of the fight. He outlanded the challenger 98-70 in significant strikes and 112-74 in total strikes.
Volkanovski kept Lopes at bay with jabs and landed heavy punches in the pocket, once again proving to be more technically sound on the feet. Lopes scored a flash knockdown in the third round, though Volkanovski was never seriously hurt.
Down on the scorecards entering the fifth round, Lopes had a brief chance at pulling off a comeback. He got on Volkanovski's back and went for a rear-naked choke, but Volkanovski escaped the position. Later in the round, Lopes tried to sink in a kimura but wasn't successful. Volkanovski got out of danger and ended the fight on top of Lopes.
"I wanted to take him out, I wanted to grab hold of him and put him down, but he was strong," Volkanovski said. "I didn't want to stand for 25 minutes, I'll be honest. But we got the job done, so it's all good."
Volkanovski is now riding a two-fight winning streak. "The Great," whose first title reign lasted from 2019-24, dropped the belt in a devastating knockout loss to Ilia Topuria in February 2024. But he became a two-time featherweight champion against Lopes nine months ago after Topuria vacated the title to move up to lightweight.
One of the greatest fighters of all time, Volkanovski is one title defense away from tying Aldo's record for the most in UFC featherweight history (seven).
Lopes, a 31-year-old Brazilian, fell to 1-2 in his last three Octagon appearances.