Alexander Volkanovski has a plan for the lightweight title, and it ends with two retirements. The former featherweight champion said he wants a superfight with Justin Gaethje for the 155-pound belt, after which both men would hang it up and leave the rest of the division to fight over what’s left. He floated the idea on the WhoTheFook podcast, in a clip shared by Championship Rounds on X.
“Let’s do a superfight, lightweight title on the line and then we can both [retire]. Then, straight after that, let the division sort themselves out. Let’s make that happen.”
The pitch lands at a strange moment for the belt. Gaethje is the current lightweight champion, but according to MMA Fighting he won’t defend it in 2026, and there’s a chance he retires without ever putting it on the line. His title run already carries a big name on the receipt. Paddy Pimblett told All Out Fighting that he thinks Ilia Topuria will never be the same after his loss to Gaethje, which tells you how that fight is still rattling around the division.
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Volkanovski, meanwhile, has been open about what his body will and won’t let him do these days. Earlier this week, in comments shared by Dovy on X, he said he has pulled back on his training a little as he gets older. He’s still running his fight simulators and “very, very hard sessions,” in his words, but he admitted he can’t train the way he did years ago without it hurting him more than helping. It’s an honest thing for a fighter to say out loud, and it reads differently next to a proposal that comes with a built-in finish line.
The men who would be left to “sort themselves out” aren’t sitting quietly. Diego Lopes, who has shared the cage with Volkanovski before, challenges Charles Oliveira for the BMF title on Dec. 12, headlining UFC 335 in Las Vegas. Lopes told MMA Fighting he isn’t sure a dominant win would even earn him a title shot, but he openly named Gaethje as the man he’d like next. He also argued the UFC tends to steer Gaethje toward matchups that suit him, away from Oliveira’s jiu-jitsu, Arman Tsarukyan’s wrestling and Topuria’s boxing. Lopes is one appearance into his lightweight career and walks around at 180 pounds now.
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Volkanovski doesn’t seem bothered by the noise. When Sportsbet called him a movie star on X this week, he answered with three laughing emojis and nothing else.
Here’s my take. I love the romance of it, two veterans who never took a shortcut settling a belt and walking out together, and Volkanovski at lightweight against Gaethje would be a gorgeous fight to watch. But the division has already been frozen for a year by a champion who isn’t defending. Asking it to wait longer for a farewell bout, and then hand back a vacant title, asks a lot of men like Lopes, Oliveira and Tsarukyan who are still building their careers. If Gaethje fights again, the guys who earned it should be first in line. Lopes gets his chance to make that case on Dec. 12.
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