The Wrap: Alexander Volkanovski loses UFC featherweight title after brutal knockout
Former champ makes his case for a rematch with Ilia Topuria
Alexander Volkanovski is no longer the UFC featherweight champion.
Volkanovski lost the featherweight crown to Ilia Topuria at the weekend in the main event of UFC 298.
The Wollongong native’s reign atop the 145lb division came to an end courtesy of a second-round KO loss, which Topuria inflicted by landing a vicious right hand when backing him up against the cage and a flurry of unanswered blows to his fallen opponent.
Volkanovski laid unconscious on the canvas for several moments before getting to his feet to offer his congratulations to Topuria following his victory.
A humble Volkanovski said: “You can’t take anything away from Topuria. If he puts a hand on you like that, you’re going to go down. I don’t care, that’s just that.
“That was a clean right hand and I think no matter who you are, you let one of those land on your chin while you’re caught there, you’re probably going down. Don’t let him catch you, that’s what that was. He caught me, so I won’t take nothing away from him.
“I’m not going to sit there and say it was this or it was that. I felt great. Camp was great. I felt good in there.”
Volkanovski made a strong start to the second round until Topuria caught him clean while circling against the cage, dropping the champion and landing follow-up shots.
On comparisons with his previous loss to Islam Makhachev, the former UFC featherweight king said: “That was totally different. This one, I was high spirits the whole way, I’m still in high spirits. He caught me, that’s that.
“I felt good in there, I felt like I’d seen everything early, but he ended up catching me.
“I was pretty comfortable in the first round and then we started being like, alright we’ll start to do more. I was just about to do more and he caught me, so that’s just the game. I’m pretty confident we were probably up until then, but that’s just the game.”
While many would take some time off after such a devastating defeat, the same can’t be said for Volkanovski, who wants to run it back with Topuria straight away.
“We knew he would be fast. We knew he would be powerful, obviously,” Volkanovski said. “We knew not to be on the cage there and let him catch us there, so again, he did a great job there, so there’s not much I can say other than congrats to him.
“Obviously, I’ve been a champ for a long time and I want that rematch, so that’s something that needs to happen. I’ve been reigning champ for how long? I’ve been a bit of a company man.
“Went back up on short notice, I fought Max [Holloway] three times, you name it, I’ve done it individually for a long time so I think I deserve that and it’s going to be different next time.”
The Welshman who dreams of UFC glory after becoming a MMA champion in Australia
He grew up in Wales, but John-Martin Fraser now makes a living fighting on the other side of the world. Since emigrating to Australia eight years ago, Fraser, from Swansea, has decided to go all in on making his UFC dream a reality.
Robert Whittaker was also back in action in Saturday’s co-main event, taking on Paulo Costa in a middleweight barnburner.
Sydney’s Whittaker won the close back-and-forth bout by unanimous decision to rebound from his most recent defeat to Dricus du Plessis.
Fellow Aussie Junior Tafa was stopped in the second round after stepping in on short notice, losing to Marcos Rogerio de Lima.
UFC 298 Results
Main card
Alexander Volkanovski vs Ilia Topuria - Topuria def. Volkanovski via KO (punch) - Round 2, 3:32
Robert Whittaker vs Paulo Costa - Whittaker def. Costa via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 30–27
Geoff Neal vs Ian Machado Garry - Garry def. Neal via split decision (30–27, 28–29, 30–27)
Merab Dvalishvili vs Henry Cejudo - Dvalishvili def. Cejudo via unanimous decision (29–28, 29–28, 29–28)
Anthony Hernandez vs Roman Kopylov - Hernandez def. Kopylov via submission (rear-naked choke) - Round 2, 3:23
Prelims
Amanda Lemos vs Mackenzie Dern - Lemos def. Dern via unanimous decision ((29–28, 29–28, 29–28)
Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs Junior Tafa - De Lima def. Tafa via TKO (leg kick and punches) - Round 2, 1:14
Rinya Nakamura vs Carlos Vera - Nakamura def. Vera via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27)
Zhang Mingyang vs Brendson Ribeiro - Mingyang def. Ribeiro via KO (punches) - Round 1, 1:41
Josh Quinlan vs Danny Barlow - Barlow def. Quinlan via TKO (punches) - Round 3, 1:18
Early prelims
Oban Elliott vs Val Woodburn - Elliott def. Woodburn via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–28)
Miranda Maverick vs Andrea Lee - Maverick def. Lee via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–28)
Upcoming events
24 February
Ascension Fight Series 1 (amateur)
Event starts from 5pm AWST on Ascension’s official website
Aaron Toy vs Jason Scarmozzino - vacant middleweight championship
- Jawad Rajabi vs Ryan Jankowski - vacant bantamweight championship
XFC 71
Event starts from 4pm AWST on XFC’s YouTube channel
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