Alexander Volkanovski

ANALYSIS
No man has beaten Volkanovski outside of champions Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria, and while it was thought Volkanovski would eventually rematch Topuria for the belt, it turns out the latter is moving up to lightweight and vacating his 145-pound strap in the process. Volkanovski now has a chance to regain his belt at the age of 36, but faces a tough customer in Lopes, who has won fight fights in a row in dominant fashion. Lopes will have a slight height advantage and five-inch reach advantage here, but Volkanovski is one of the kings of volume striking, and he does have a slight wrestling threat to bring to the table.

ANALYSIS
It's Volkanovski's first loss at 145 pounds since May 10, 2013. That is not a misprint. Alex is unquestionably one of the greatest featherweights of all time, but this is just the latest example that Father Time remains undefeated. Volk entered having lost two of his past three, but both those defeats came at lightweight against the top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world in Islam Makhachev. Back at his natural weight class here, something just seemed off. Alex started slowly in each round, although he gained some serious momentum late in Round 1. He appeared to be treading water in Round 2, at which point he got blasted with a right hand during an exchange along the fence which shut his body down in an instant. It was truly brutal. Volk went more than a decade with no durability issues whatsoever, but he's now been knocked out in back-to-back bouts. This simply felt like a case of a 35-year-old veteran sort of passing the torch to his 27-year-old challenger. We've seen time and time again that betting against Volkanovski is a bad idea, but there are some legitimate long-term concerns following this effort.

ANALYSIS
Unsurprisingly, Volkanovski will make his featherweight return to fight the most promising prospect in the division since he became champion. Topuria logged his UFC debut in 2020 and has won each of his six fights since then, the latest being a decisive five-rounder against former interim title challenger Josh Emmett. Volkanovski is coming off a first-round knockout from UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev but will look to prove he is fine at featherweight, a division in which he still remains unbeaten.

ANALYSIS
Volkanovski is going to be upset with his performance, but the bottom line is that he accepted this bout less than two weeks ago and was facing arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. We saw how competitive Volk was against Islam with a full training camp under his belt. He didn't have such a luxury here, and one can't help but think that played a factor in the result. After all, his last prior knockout loss came on May 10, 2013. Before stepping in here against Makhachev, Alex was announced for a featherweight title defense against Ilia Topuria this coming January. Volkanovski stated in his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier that he wants to remain as active as possible and fully intends on sticking to that Topuria bout. Although the back-to-back defeats to Islam are disappointing, the truth of the matter is that no fighter at 145 pounds has threatened Volk in several years, and he remains by far the best featherweight in the world today.

ANALYSIS
Volkanovski's lone loss in the UFC came at the hands of Makhachev at UFC 284 in February. Eight months later, Volkanovski will get a second chance at the lightweight title after Charles Oliveira was forced to withdraw due to injury.