Alexander Volkanovski is 38 years old, he’s holding a featherweight belt, and he keeps talking like a guy with a decade of runway in front of him. I love that energy. I also think his own corner just said the smartest thing anyone has said about this whole lightweight flirtation, and they did it in four words.
“He’s got the wrestling.”
That’s the line Sportskeeda ran with when Volkanovski’s coach dropped a bold prediction for a potential fight with Justin Gaethje. I only have the headline, so I won’t pretend to know every detail of the breakdown. The headline alone tells you plenty about where the camp’s head is. They see a path, and it runs through grappling.
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Good. Because the version of this fight I’d be nervous about is the one where Volk walks out at 155 with something to prove and decides to stand in the phone booth with Gaethje for 15 minutes just to show he can. Ego fights are fun to watch and miserable to corner. A coach who opens the conversation with wrestling is a coach who wants his guy to win, and that’s exactly what a 38-year-old moving up a division needs in his ear.
The Gaethje fight is the right last dance
SportsGrid framed this as Volkanovski eyeing Gaethje for a final UFC superfight. Final. That word carries a lot of weight, and it should, because the clock in this sport doesn’t care about legacy.
Over on X, @DovySimuMMA posted an age list that read like a roll call at a retirement party. Conor McGregor, 38. Alex Pereira, 39. Kamaru Usman, 39. Gaethje, 37. Israel Adesanya, 37. Volkanovski, 38. Spinnin Backfist replied with the cold water: Joshua Van is 24.
That’s the math. Volk and Gaethje are two of the biggest names left from a generation that’s running out of fights, and putting them in the same cage while both can still go is the kind of booking I’ll defend all day. Big name, big stakes, zero manufactured nonsense. Neither guy needs a trash talk script to sell it.
And Gaethje is coming in hot. He beat Paddy Pimblett in January, and he hasn’t exactly been humble about it. Championship Rounds shared a clip via Barstool Sports where a guy told Gaethje he was a Pimblett fan without realizing the two had fought. Gaethje’s response was perfect:
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“I fought him in January, I beat him up. I dog walked that motherf*cker.”
That’s a man who knows his stock is high. It also explains why he has suitors. Pimblett said in a clip shared by Spinnin Backfist that he’d prefer the Gaethje rematch over a fight with Ilia Topuria. Respect to Paddy for wanting the run back, but a rematch of a fight Gaethje won this year is a rerun. Volkanovski is a brand new episode with a bigger budget. If I’m Gaethje and I’m thinking about how I want the last stretch of my career to look, I’m picking the fight that gets talked about for years.
Then Volk said the quiet part out loud
Here’s where it gets interesting. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, which Championship Rounds clipped on X, Volkanovski laid out a backup plan that’s way spicier than the Gaethje fight:
“I’ll vacate the featherweight belt and fight Arman for the title. There it is.
If I was champion at lightweight, I’m fighting Arman. 100%. If Gaethje doesn’t wanna [fight Arman], I’ll do it. That excites me.”
Read that twice. The condition, per the post, is Gaethje retiring. If that happens, Volk says he’s giving up the featherweight strap and going straight at Arman Tsarukyan for the lightweight title. He didn’t hedge. He didn’t say he’d “look at options.” He said “There it is,” like a guy slapping a winning hand on the table.
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This is my favorite kind of fighter. He called his shot with the opponent’s name in it. Now he has to back it up, and I’ll cheer if he does.
I’d still slow the bus down a little. The Gaethje fight is the one his coach is already game planning, and it’s the one that fits the “final superfight” framing SportsGrid used. The Arman talk tells you Volk’s appetite is bigger than any single matchup, which is great for headlines and slightly terrifying for a guy his age jumping a weight class. Wanting the hardest possible assignment is admirable. Taking the fight your camp has a clear plan for is smarter.
So my position is simple. Make Volkanovski vs. Gaethje. Let the coach’s wrestling thesis get tested in a cage instead of on a podcast. If Volk wins, the Arman conversation shows up on its own with way more juice behind it.
And if the UFC needs one more reason, Alex Volkov gave it to them by accident. Volkov told Helwani he doesn’t think Dana White recognized him at the UFC 333 presser, joking that every time Dana hears his name he probably thinks people are talking about Alexander Volkanovski. When the boss can’t tell your heavyweight apart from you, you’re the name that sells. Spend it on Gaethje.
