Alexander Volkanovski reveals his true goal as UFC Featherweight Champion and stance on "Super Fights"
Between late 2016 to 2018 (and some part of 2019), the concept of "Super Fights" began to take shape in UFC. While it's nice to see them once in a while, it was clear that it was more of a quick cash grab type of situation and from November 2016 to now, there have been four people to become Double Champions - Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Henry Cejudo.
While it's a great accomplishment, it presented a problem - the divisions would get held up and deserving contenders would have to sit on the sidelines despite having earned a title shot. It got complicated and former Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping admitted that he's "sick" of all the talk of super fights.
However, not all Champions are prioritizing a cross-over. Recently-crowned Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski is adamant to affirm his place as the King of the 145-pound division.
Volkanovski told BJPenn.com that it's a very exciting time in the Featherweight division. He believes that the quality of contenders is better than it was before and if he started taking out contenders left and right, the "GOAT" talks will already begin to be thrown around.
He said that he won't deny the opportunity for a super fight if it's presented to him, but that's not his priority:
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to sit here and ask for it, but if an opportunity comes, if Dana and the matchmakers come and say ‘we want you to fight Khabib,’ I’ll go ‘alright, fine. Sweet.’ You know what I mean? If that opportunity is given to me, for a big payday, I ain’t going to say no, but I ain’t going to be the type of person that’s going to try and dodge my division, dodge all the number one contenders.
Accepting responsibility for the division and the state of it, Volkanovski praised Max Holloway for being a great Champion and wants to do the same:
“I’ve got a division to hold, so that’s what I’m going to do,” he added. “If opportunities come, I’ll worry about it then, but right now we’ve got a stacked division. Just like Max. Max was the same. Max wasn’t bullshitting around. Obviously eventually these opportunities came to him and he’s going to take them. He was a great champion, I’ll give him that. I’m going to do the same, and we’ll see what happens.”
It's good to see that the Australian is prioritizing his division. He recently made a comment claiming that he isn't too convinced that Max Holloway deserves an immediate rematch. He said that he wants to face the "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung, but believes that his two-fight win streak isn't enough to warrant a title shot.
He requested the top Featherweight contenders to go at it and make their claim for a title shot - telling them that they can meet mid-year - which is when Volkanovski expects to recover from his hand injury.