Alexander
Volkanovski is exploring side hustles at lightweight while he
awaits another shot at the featherweight title.
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Makhachev successfully defended his lightweight title against
Dustin
Poirier via fifth-round submission in the main event at
UFC
302 on Saturday. Poirier subsequently hinted that he might call
it a career in the aftermath of the defeat.
However, Volkanovski hasn’t completely given up hope of Poirier
competing again. The former featherweight champ called for a
lightweight clash against “The Diamond” while he awaits another
shot at the 145-pound strap.
“Maybe, just maybe, depending on what I’m doing and when, obviously
I want to fight later in the year… I don’t want to wait too long,
either. So, if the timing works, maybe me and Dustin maybe we can
have a good fight,” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “I
don’t know, he sort of just wants good, fun fights. Obviously, we
have a lot of respect for each other. And I think that’ll be a
massive fight.
“So that’s something that I’ll be willing to do while I’m waiting
for that featherweight title. Maybe a lightweight fight against
someone like Dustin Poirier will be great. So you heard it here
first, maybe we can make something happen. Dustin, you’re a legend,
keep your head up, that was a great performance still and maybe we
can have a little fun in there, have a little dance, let me know
what you think.”
Volkanovski went toe-to-toe against Makhachev in their first
meeting, losing a unanimous decision in a lightweight title bid at
UFC 284 in February 2023. “The Great” bounced back with a knockout
win over Yair
Rodriguez this past July and went on accept a short-notice
rematch against Makhachev, replacing Charles
Oliveira. Volkanovski suffered a vicious head kick knockout
against the lightweight champ at UFC 294 in October 2023. The
Australian then lost his featherweight title to Ilia
Topuria via second-round knockout at UFC 298 this past
February, making him 1-3 in his last four outings.