Nick Kyrgios had him anyway, claims Alexander Volkanovski after Rafael Nadal's withdrawal from Wimbledon 2022 semifinals due to an abdominal injury

Alexander Volkanovski (left), Rafael Nadal (center), Nick Kyrgios (right) [Images courtesy:@alexvolkanovski and @rafaelnadal via Instagram]

Rafael Nadal withdrew from his Wimbledon men's singles semifinal match against Nick Kyrgios. However, Alexander Volkanovski believes that his compatriot was going to beat the Spanish star anyway.

Taking to social media, the UFC featherweight champion showed support for Kyrgios. He posted after Ariel Helwani hinted on Twitter that Nadal's absence had somewhat diluted what was going to be a big weekend for people named 'Rafael'. Here's what Volkanovski wrote:

"@NickKyrgios had him anyway"

@arielhelwani @NickKyrgios had him anyway 😏

Helwani was referencing the tennis star's semi-final match against Kyrgios and the UFC Vegas 58 headliner between Rafael Fiziev and Rafael dos Anjos.

This was really shaping up to be an all-time weekend for people named Rafael twitter.com/wimbledon/stat…

Rafael dos Anjos and Rafael Fiziev clashed at UFC Vegas 58 this past Saturday. 'Ataman' scored the biggest win of his career by knocking out the former champion with a perfectly timed left hook in the fifth round of the bout. The Kazakh-born fighter picked up his sixth consecutive win in the process.

Alexander Volkanovski looks to capture lightweight title

Alexander Volkanovski scored a lopsided decision win over former titleholder Max Holloway in their trilogy bout at UFC 276. 'The Great' also solidified his status as one of the greatest featherweights of all time with the impressive win.

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Alexander Volkanovski is now 3-0 against Max Holloway and also holds wins over the likes of Jose Aldo, Brian Ortega, and Chan Sung Jung. Following his latest victory, the champion announced his desire to move up a weight class and capture the vacant lightweight gold in a fight against Charles Oliveira.

Volkanovski has been quite vocal about moving up to 155lbs and pursuing a dual-champion status. He seems intrigued by a potential fight against 'do Bronx'.

Charles Oliveira is no longer the lightweight champion on account of missing weight before his submission win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. While he no longer holds the title, the Brazilian is still regarded as a champion by many. Oliveira is also guaranteed to be in the next 155-pound title bout and there's a good chance he will face Volkanovski in the future.

Ahead of UFC 276, Dana White stated in an interview with The Mac Life that he would be open to 'The Great' moving up to 155lbs and attempting to achieve double-champion status. The UFC president said:

"Volkanovski is one of those guys who has earned the respect of everybody, I would say, by now. You know, he’s got this Holloway fight that probably makes sense for him to do this and put this behind him. Then you don’t have to hear about it anymore, and that guy can do whatever he wants to do. I mean, if he wants to move up and challenge somebody at ’55 or whatever he wants to do, I’m down for whatever he wants."

Watch Dana White discuss Alexander Volkanovski below:

Fans will have to wait and see if Oliveira takes on Alexander Volkanovski or chooses to fight Islam Makhachev, who is also being touted as the next title challenger.