Just 24 hours before the UFC’s annual early-July, pay-per-view spectacular, promotion president Dana White announced Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic would be on tap for the octagon’s yearly November trip to Madison Square Garden.
(And make no mistake, that news came in reaction to reports of lineal MMA heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou set to face lineal boxing heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in the latter’s sport.)
If all goes according to plan and Jones puts his UFC heavyweight title on the line against Miocic this fall, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see both men walk off into the sunset.
And should that come to pass, and Jones and his GOAT status are off the active roster, you needn’t look any further for the title of greatest active fighter on the UFC roster than featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who reminded the world why he’s so far ahead of the competition in his own weight class — five months after showing he can hold his own in a losing effort against lightweight champ Islam Makhachev.
Alexander “The Great” pounded interim titleholder Yair Rodriguez for two rounds on Saturday night in Las Vegas before stinging and stopping his latest victim in the third round of their UFC 290 headliner at T-Mobile Arena.
Two days after Jose Aldo, the organization’s inaugural 145-pound titleholder, was enshrined in the UFC Hall of Fame, Volkanovski (26-2, 16 finishes) moved within two featherweight championship wins of matching the gold standard.
Aldo won eight title fights in the UFC — and preceded those with three in the WEC, the promotion whose roster the UFC absorbed in 2011 — and it’s not inconceivable for the Australian to match or surpass the Brazilian within a year.
“I’m really coming for all them records,” Volkanovski said in the octagon following the victory. “I’m pretty close to knocking off a few of those. I’ve got a lot of goals ahead, but hey, sky’s the limit.”
Rodriguez (15-4, nine finishes) was supposed to be the “unpredictable” challenge who could keep Volkanovski on his toes.
Outside of some success in the minutes preceding the Aussie’s fight-shifting striking sequence, that never came to pass.
Volkanovksi simply did not allow it.
“You gotta expect the unexpected; that’s Yair,” Volkanovski said. “Anyone who knows this game knows how dangerous he was. I’m telling you — and I’m being honest with you — through camp, there was a bit of fear there, fear in his striking, knowing how dangerous he was. And that’s just the truth.
“…But this week, I flipped a switch.”
Having added a little mass ahead of the Makhachev fight — and carrying some of that into this one despite the return from 155 pounds — Volkanovski’s strength and grappling edges made all the difference.
He wore down Rodriguez, who won his interim title the same night as the 145-pound champ’s lightweight title bid.
Punches and elbows from the top in both guard and half-guard recalled the Spike-era UFC great performances of legends like Randy Couture.
Rodriguez, whose loss coupled with that of Brandon Moreno dropping his flyweight title to Alexandre Pantoja the night before left Mexico without a male UFC champion, did not wilt under the ground-and-pound onslaught.
He saved that for the third frame on the feet, not long after absorbing an incidental clash to his jaw from his opponent’s crown.
A right hook with a minute to go backed up Rodriguez to the fence, and Volkanovski’s swarm was mercifully stopped at 4:19 of the round.
“I knew that, when I started circling a certain way, he would switch stances,” Volkanovski said on the broadcast. “And then I knew that a right hook would be pretty good.”
Now 16-0 as a featherweight, Volkanovski’s featherweight run the past five years is as impressive as anyone’s on the current roster, regardless of weight class.
In order: Chad Mendes, Aldo, Max Holloway, Holloway again, Brian Ortega, “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, Holloway again, Rodriguez.
All had held or challenged for gold at 145 before the dangerous Down Under denizen denied them.
In the cage, Volkanovski spoke of his numerous options for what’s next, including addressing a nagging arm issue that he said would require surgery that he said made his fight camp “a bit of a struggle.”
Adding that the plan is to get in one more fight this year, he laid out two of the most attractive challenges ahead of him.
“I want that lightweight belt. I’m still coming for that,” said Volkanovski, before name-checking one of the most promising rising stars in his weight class. “Whoever’s next: Ilia [Topuria’s] been running his mouth. If he wants to keep going, I’ll show him what happens. I’ll squash him too.”
With a litany of squashed featherweights in his wake, don’t doubt for a second that Volkanovski can make good on his warning.