Alexander Volkanovski has a chance to join exalted company by becoming a two-division UFC champion, as the promotion’s top pound-for-pound fighter chases history on home soil.
The UFC featherweight champion will fight for the lightweight title when he faces Islam Makhachev in the main event of UFC 284 at Perth’s RAC Arena on February 12.
Only seven fighters in UFC history - Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Conor McGregor, Georges St Pierre, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Henry Cejudo - have held championships in two divisions.
Even fewer have reigned across two divisions at the same time, with Volkanovski looking to join McGregor, Cormier, Cejudo and Nunes [who has achieved the feat twice] in that elite club. Only two of those fighters have defended titles while holding belts in multiple divisions, being Cormier [one defence of his heavyweight championship] and Nunes [two defences of both her bantamweight and featherweight titles].
For the uninitiated, Volkanovski’s resume is impressive enough to catapult himself - once a pint-sized prop forward for the Warilla Gorillas - into discussions over the greatest mixed martial artist of all time.
The 34-year-old ex-concreter from Wollongong is unbeaten in his past 22 fights and boasts a 12-0 record in the UFC. He is No. 1 in the promotion’s pound-for-pound rankings. Now he has a chance to add another chapter to a rapidly growing legacy.
Alex Volkanovski will look to become a two-division champion.Credit: Getty Images
“We’re booked in, it’s official. UFC 284 in Perth, let’s get that second belt, baby,” Volkanovski said from Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday [AEDT].
The featherweight titleholder was on standby for a shot at the lightweight title in Abu Dhabi last month, ready to step in had either Makhachev or Charles Oliveira been forced out of UFC 280’s main event. Makhachev ultimately claimed the strap with a second-round submission victory, before inviting Volkanovski into the octagon for their first face-off - and it won’t be their last.
Volkanovski was in New York on Sunday to watch City Kickboxing teammate Israel Adesanya defend his middleweight crown against Alex Pereira - a bout that ended in heartbreak for the Nigerian born-New Zealander. Pereira, who had beaten Adesanya twice as a kickboxer, was saved by the bell when he was rocked in the final moments of the opening round.
Adesanya then took control of the contest and dragged Pereira into the fifth round - deeper than he had ever gone before - but the Brazilian pulled off a stunning TKO victory to claim the middleweight championship.
Adesanya had held the title since October 2019, when he beat Rob Whittaker in front of 57,127 people in Melbourne - a figure which still stands as the promotion’s biggest crowd in history. But come February, Volkanovski will take centre stage.
“That’s Volk’s show. I want to sit back and enjoy greatness, I want to watch greatness at work,” Adesanya told the Herald.
“It’s good to see what we’re building right now. Right now, we’re living in history. Years from now, they’ll speak about us as a collective in such high regard. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for the young guys as well.
“It’s crazy. The UFC already came through but all those years ago, it was so different. There’s more attention now. The stock has gone way up since then.”
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