Alexander Volkanovski finished Movsar Evloev in the second round at UFC 333 on Saturday, kept his featherweight title, and then started talking about the last fight of his career. According to a post from Championship Rounds on X, Volkanovski said he wants to move up to fight Justin Gaethje, and he attached a very specific condition to it:
“I don’t want to hold divisions up, but I believe we could do this and not hold the divisions up. That’s something I’d retire for. If they want to give me that opportunity, win or lose I’d retire.”
Win or lose. Fighters talk about retirement about as seriously as bettors swear off parlays after a bad Sunday, so I’d hold my applause, but he tied it to one name and one fight, which is more commitment than most guys offer. Sports Illustrated framed the idea as a mega champ-versus-champ fight.
View post on X
The man asking has earned the right to ask. Volkanovski is 29-4 and sits at No. 1 at featherweight in the Knockout Daily rankings. He’s a two-time UFC featherweight champion, the first Australian-born fighter to win a UFC title, and he owns the most featherweight title victories in company history. He became the oldest man to win the 145-pound belt at 36 and the oldest to defend it at 38, which is now a record he keeps padding. As of June 16, the UFC had him No. 2 pound-for-pound.
The Evloev result only added to the age jokes, the good kind. ACD MMA posted that the 38-year-old was still getting wins in 2026, and Spinnin Backfist went with “Dad who is Alexander Volkanovski? Was he any good?” Championship Rounds called the finish in real time with “AND STILL!!!!!” Petr Yan, who also won on the card, posed for a photo with him afterward.
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What happens next
The line worth circling is the one about not holding divisions up. Any superfight across weight classes means the featherweight belt waits while Volkanovski chases something bigger, and he’s clearly pitching a version where nobody’s division gets frozen. How that works logistically, he didn’t say.
No reply from Gaethje and no offer from the UFC appeared in the reporting by Sunday. Until one of those shows up, this is a 38-year-old champion telling his boss exactly what it would cost to get him to leave, and if I’m the UFC, that’s the cheapest price tag a legend has ever handed me.
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