Alexander Volkanovski is still selling the Justin Gaethje fight, and he’s doing it with a title defense against Movsar Evloev sitting right in front of him.
At UFC 333 media day in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, the featherweight champion went back to the idea he first floated a few weeks ago. That idea is a champion-versus-champion superfight with Gaethje, the lightweight titleholder, where both men walk away afterward. Bloody Elbow, which reported the comments, framed it as a pitch that risks annoying Dana White, since champ-versus-champ fights tend to freeze two divisions at once.
Volkanovski’s answer to that problem is simple. Nobody gets frozen if both guys leave.
“I mean look, I’m not the one to just call for title fights, there are so many guys that are deserving in that lightweight division,” he said, before laying out why he thinks Gaethje specifically makes sense. “He doesn’t wanna do rematches, I haven’t fought him and I don’t have any plans of retiring other than if we were to do something like this.”
He described the pitch as both men agreeing to “let’s have our last fight, super fight, champion vs champion, we’re not holding the division’s because we’re gonna see ourselves off and let the divisions do their thing.”
There’s a legacy angle here too. Volkanovski went up to lightweight twice to fight Islam Makhachev and came back without the second belt both times. Gaethje is his cleanest remaining shot at finally becoming a two-division champion, and Gaethje himself is reportedly unsure about his future and may be one fight from retirement, per Bloody Elbow. That’s a guy Volkanovski has never shared a cage with, which matters when the other guy has made it clear he isn’t interested in rematches.
First, the actual job. Volkanovski defends against Evloev on Saturday in the UFC 333 main event. Evloev is undefeated, and his coach has already gone public saying the 38-year-old is past his prime and finished at the top of the division. Volkanovski, for what it’s worth, says he has no plans to retire after this one.
If the Gaethje fight never happens, 145 has options. Ahead of the Evloev fight, Volkanovski singled out two contenders he’d consider if he stays at featherweight. Aljamain Sterling meets Kevin Vallejos in November, and whoever wins that is in the title mix. Jean Silva has rebuilt nicely after losing to Diego Lopes in 2025, stacking wins over Arnold Allen and Jose Delgado.
My take: this is the best version of a champ-versus-champ fight because it comes with its own exit plan. No interim belts, no divisions on hold for eight months while two old champions negotiate. Two guys who’ve given the sport everything get one last fight they both want, and the belts get handed to the contenders afterward. White should take the deal if it’s offered. But none of it matters if Evloev does what his coach says he’ll do on Saturday, and an undefeated wrestler in Abu Dhabi is about the worst possible guy to overlook.
