Dana White has reportedly approved a superfight between Justin Gaethje and Alexander Volkanovski, according to a Yardbarker report published Nov. 5. That headline is the whole of it for now. There’s no date, no venue and no weight class in the available reporting. Neither fighter nor White has said anything on the record about the matchup in what’s surfaced so far.
If it comes together, it’s two reigning champions. Gaethje (28-5) holds the UFC lightweight title and sat No. 3 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings as of Sept. 22. Volkanovski (29-4) is the current and two-time featherweight champion, ranked No. 2 pound-for-pound as of June 16. They were born about seven weeks apart in the fall of 1988, and both have been rewriting the age records in their divisions. Gaethje became the oldest man to win the lightweight belt at 37. Volkanovski became the oldest to win the featherweight title at 36, then the oldest to defend it at 38.
They came up through wrestling rooms on opposite sides of the world. Gaethje grew up in Safford, Arizona, the son of a copper miner. He spent a summer at the Morenci mine at 18 before going on to wrestle Division I at Northern Colorado. Volkanovski won two national Greco-Roman titles at 12 in New South Wales, then walked away for rugby league and poured concrete. He was 22 and weighing 97 kg when he started training MMA. Gaethje brings the bonus résumé, too: 17 post-fight awards in 16 UFC appearances and a record 11 Fight of the Night checks.
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Gaethje last fought June 14. Volkanovski fought most recently on Oct. 24, so the featherweight champion is the one on the shorter turnaround.
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The other piece of the picture is Ilia Topuria, who lost to Gaethje. White told Jim Rome that the UFC is building Topuria’s comeback, per a clip Championship Rounds posted on X. “He’ll come back in early 2027. We’re working on that,” White said. Topuria, in his first interview since the loss, offered this: “The fire inside me is even bigger now.”
None of the reporting explains how a Gaethje vs. Volkanovski booking would line up with Topuria’s timeline. That’s the detail worth watching once anyone puts a date on this. Gaethje turns 38 on Nov. 14.
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