Alexander Volkanovski just put together one of the best nights of his career, and he’s already telling people not to get used to it. Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show after his second-round stoppage of Movsar Evloev in the UFC 333 main event, the featherweight champion said his time in the Octagon is winding down and his health, specifically his brain, will decide how much longer he sticks around.
“I’m content (with what I’ve done) now,” Volkanovski said. He was blunt about the trade-off he’s weighing. The money is the reason to keep going, and he admitted as much: “We ain’t never gonna get paychecks like this ever again.” The body can take the wear, by his account. The head is a different story.
“The head stuff, I don’t wanna mess around with,” he said. “One hard knock to the brain, a concussion and that’s that.”
The win in Abu Dhabi on October 24 made Volkanovski the first man to beat Evloev in professional MMA, and it went down as his second successful defense since he started his second run with the 145-pound belt. That second reign was a comeback a lot of people didn’t see coming. In February 2024, Ilia Topuria knocked him out, and that came just four months after Islam Makhachev had also put him out cold. Two knockouts inside roughly a third of a year, at his age, had plenty of people writing the obituary. He’s since climbed back to the top of the division and stayed there.
What comes next depends on lightweight. Justin Gaethje holds the 155-pound title, and Volkanovski has floated a fight with him. If that falls apart because Gaethje retires, Volkanovski said he’d be willing to vacate the featherweight belt to fight Arman Tsarukyan for the empty lightweight strap. If the UFC goes a different direction at 155, his top pick for another featherweight defense is Aljamain Sterling, provided Sterling gets past Kevin Vallejos in November.
“I’m weighing all these options,” Volkanovski said, and he described himself as taking things one fight at a time.
Here’s my problem with the lightweight route, and I say this as someone who has lost money betting against this guy more than once. Volkanovski just told you the only thing that ends his career is a head shot that lands clean. Then his preferred next move is going up 10 pounds to fight bigger men, one of whom is Tsarukyan. His two most recent knockout losses both came against opponents who had a size advantage on him (Makhachev at lightweight) or the power to finish him outright (Topuria). The man is 38. If the plan is to protect the brain and cash one or two more big checks, the Sterling fight at featherweight is the sensible play, and it might be the more winnable one too. If Sterling handles Vallejos in November, that’s the fight I’d want booked, and it’s the one where I’d still be nervous about fading Volkanovski.
