Alexander Volkanovski overtakes Israel Adesanya to become no. 3 on UFC men's pound-for-pound ranking
Alexander Volkanovski has overtaken City Kickboxing teammate Israel Adesanya to claim the third spot in the official men's pound-for-pound rankings following his stunning victory over Brian Ortega at UFC 266. Kamaru Usman is the new number one ranked pound-for-pound fighter, having recently replaced Jon Jones.
The new men's pound-for-pound rankings have arrived! 📈 https://t.co/LD35UMdMkE
Volkanovski and Ortega went to war at UFC 266. The fight turned out to be a thrilling back-and-forth contest, which the Australian clinched via unanimous decision after five rounds. Following the fight, the entire MMA community showered praise on the champ for his incredible performance against Ortega.
Volkanovski is undefeated in the UFC and is on an incredible 20 fight win streak in his professional career. He has comprehensively beaten some of the greatest featherweights on the planet inside the octagon.
Alexander Volkanovski is pondering a move to the lightweight division
Following the fight against Ortega, Alexander Volkanovski said he is pondering a move to the lightweight division while awaiting the next challenger for his featherweight strap. Max Holloway and Yair Rodriguez are likely fighting each other for the number one contender's spot.
The champ wants to remain active instead of waiting around until then and a move to 155 makes sense in his eyes:
"They’re not fighting till later. If I have to move up just to get a fight while we’re waiting for that because again, I want to fight regularly, I don’t want to wait another fu**in’ six, seven months. So yeah, we’ll just see what happens. Yeah, I’ll move up. I’ll go up to lightweight, have a bit of fun there, and then just wait for the winner, and then we’ll run that back,” Volkanovski said at the post-fight press conference following UFC 266.
Former two-division champion Henry Cejudo is also eyeing a potential title fight against Alexander Volkanovski. In a recent interaction with The Schmo, Cejudo asked UFC president Dana White to book a matchup between 'Triple C' and Volkanovski in Australia.
“F---, Henry Cejudo… I’ll squash the little germ.”
@alexvolkanovski reacted to Triple C’s callout 😳 #UFC266 https://t.co/AQ4ddpiMVS