Alexander Volkanovski turned 38 a few weeks ago, still holds the UFC featherweight title, and has mapped out his exit. He wants to move up to lightweight, fight Justin Gaethje for the 155-pound belt, then walk away from combat sports. MMA Mania reported that Dana White sounds like he’s on board. On Wednesday, Chael Sonnen and Michael Bisping explained why the plan should die on the whiteboard. I’m with them, and I think the strongest case against it comes from combining what both men said.
Sonnen went first and went loud. On his YouTube channel he called the pitch “one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard” and dismissed the test-myself framing as a cop out. To his credit (and by Chael standards this counts as restraint), he said he didn’t think Volkanovski was doing it consciously. His fix is simple. Give up the 145-pound strap and enter lightweight with nothing promised, the way Ilia Topuria did and the way Max Holloway did. Sonnen even conceded that Topuria ended up with a title shot anyway, but his point was that nobody guaranteed it when Topuria let go of his belt. Vacating, Sonnen said, takes about as much effort as a press release. You make a public statement and the belt is gone.
The record makes Sonnen’s point for him
Volkanovski is 0-2 in lightweight title fights, and both losses came against then-champion Islam Makhachev. On those trips, Sonnen argued, Volkanovski never burned his boats. The featherweight title stayed in his back pocket both times. The Gaethje idea is the third version of that same arrangement, with a 155-pound title fight on offer and the 145 belt kept close as a safety net. Sonnen’s cleanest point was that asking for a world title shot you’ve already had twice is a different request from testing yourself in a new division.
That’s the part I can’t get past. Testing yourself at a new weight means finding out where you actually rank there. Two straight title fights followed by a request for a third tells you nothing new about how Volkanovski stacks up against the lightweight field. It only tells you the UFC likes him, and we already knew that.
Bisping went to the rankings
Bisping, speaking on the Believe You Me Podcast, skipped the psychology and talked about the line. He said Gaethje already has a clear No. 1 contender in Arman Tsarukyan. He also named Charles Oliveira, who is booked against Diego Lopes, and Max Holloway, pointing out that Volkanovski has lost to both. Lightweight has a queue, and Volkanovski would be walking straight past the front of it.
Bisping’s best point was about Gaethje’s side of the deal, and it’s the one people will skip. A featherweight moving up gets credit for trying no matter what happens. Bisping described it as a win-win for Volkanovski regardless of the result. Gaethje carries all the downside. If he loses, Bisping said, it looks bad, he gives up his belt, and then he retires on that. Bisping said he’d understand if Gaethje hesitated, and honestly I’d be more surprised if he didn’t.
A belt that goes in a drawer
Here’s the wrinkle that makes this worse. MMA Mania noted the whole thing hinges on whether Gaethje retires from MMA, and MMA Fighting’s Morning Report framed it as a double retirement fight. So the pitch is two men on their way out fighting for a lightweight title that neither one plans to defend. Whoever wins hands the belt back, and Tsarukyan, the guy Bisping calls the clear No. 1, gets to sit through a farewell tour before anyone fights for the title again.
Meanwhile, the featherweight division is stuck too. MMA Mania reported that Volkanovski has already turned down a 145-pound defense against fan favorite Jean Silva. Follow that through and you get two divisions frozen at once. The featherweight champion won’t defend, and the lightweight title gets used for a retirement party.
I have a lot of respect for Volkanovski’s career, and nothing in his 29-4 record needs saving. But a title fight is a promise to the rest of the division that the belt means something. Contenders like Tsarukyan, plus everybody stacked up behind Oliveira and Lopes, are fighting for that promise. Spending it on a farewell bout breaks it.
If Volkanovski really wants one more test at 155, Sonnen already gave him the instructions. Drop the featherweight belt, take a lightweight with a number next to his name, and let the result decide what comes next. If he wins and Gaethje is still around and still champion, nobody will complain about that fight. Until then, Tsarukyan should get the first phone call.
