The person for the land Down Under is back on top.
Greater than a 12 months after Ilia Topuria knocked him off his perch, Alexander Volkanovski recovered the since-vacated featherweight title on Saturday night with a unanimous decision victory, 49-46, 49-46, 48-47, victory over Diego Lopes within the UFC 314 most important event in Miami.
The title had been recently vacated by Topuria after the previous champ resolved to maneuver as much as lightweight.
Volkanovski (27-4, 16 finishes), who had not competed since Topuria knocked him out last February, took the fight to Lopes (26-7, 22 finishes) early, attacking with quick punches to the top and seeming to steal among the spirit from his opponent.
But Lopes, a Brazilian who has settled in Mexico, got here to life with a temporary knockdown of Aussie late within the second round.
Volkanovksi was undeterred, coming back with a robust third frame and weathering fourth-round trouble in the shape of a punch that disrupted his eyesight to shut the fifth and final round strong.
Within the co-main event, rising star Paddy Pimblett (23-3, 17 finishes) didn’t need the total scheduled five rounds to show in his finest performance thus far, manhandling and battering Michael Chandler (23-10, 18 finishes) right into a third-round TKO victory.
“Anybody else got any questions?” he screamed into the camera, a shot on the doubters of his progression up the UFC ranks.
Pimblett also called for a fight against one among the highest 155-pounders within the promotion: either Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira or Arman Tsarukyan.
Preceding Pimblett’s impressive performance, Yair Rodriguez (20-5, 13 finishes) outclassed debuting longtime Bellator star Patricio Pitbull (36-8, 24 finishes) via three-round decision, heating up within the third round after a tepid begin to their key featherweight clash.
Rodriguez, the previous interim titleholder at 145 kilos, afterward called for a title fight against Volkanovksi in his native Mexico when the UFC returns south of the border in September.
Former light heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes (15-4, 12 finishes), a former Stony Brook defensive back, opened the pay-per-view portion of the event with a one-hitter quitter KO of Nikita Krylov (30-10, 28 finishes), flattening him with a left hand in the primary round to run his win streak to a few after having previously lost 4 straight.
The subsequent bout — coming after the UFC announced women’s MMA legend Amanda Nunes as a member of its Hall of Fame Class of 2025 — saw Jean Silva (16-2, 15 finishes) tap out Bryce Mitchell (17-3, 10 finishes) via second-round ninja choke, extending his meteoric stand up the featherweight ranks.
In essentially the most pivotal fight on the prelims, Virna Jandiroba (22-3, 15 finishes) dominated ex-title challenger Yan Xiaonan (19-5, nine finishes) together with her grappling for a unanimous decision victory and solidifying her case to be the subsequent to face women’s strawweight champ Zhang Weili.
Other victory on the preliminary portion were Dan Ige (via third-round TKO over Sean Woodson), Chase Hooper (via decision against Jim Miller), Julian Erosa (via round-one TKO vs. Darren Elkins), Michał Oleksiejczuk (via first-round TKO against Sedriques Dumas), Sumudaerji (via decision over Mitch Raposo), Marco Tulio (via second-round TKO vs. Tresean Gore) and Nora Cornolle (via round-two submission against Hailey Cowan).
The person for the land Down Under is back on top.
Greater than a 12 months after Ilia Topuria knocked him off his perch, Alexander Volkanovski recovered the since-vacated featherweight title on Saturday night with a unanimous decision victory, 49-46, 49-46, 48-47, victory over Diego Lopes within the UFC 314 most important event in Miami.
The title had been recently vacated by Topuria after the previous champ resolved to maneuver as much as lightweight.
Volkanovski (27-4, 16 finishes), who had not competed since Topuria knocked him out last February, took the fight to Lopes (26-7, 22 finishes) early, attacking with quick punches to the top and seeming to steal among the spirit from his opponent.
But Lopes, a Brazilian who has settled in Mexico, got here to life with a temporary knockdown of Aussie late within the second round.
Volkanovksi was undeterred, coming back with a robust third frame and weathering fourth-round trouble in the shape of a punch that disrupted his eyesight to shut the fifth and final round strong.
Within the co-main event, rising star Paddy Pimblett (23-3, 17 finishes) didn’t need the total scheduled five rounds to show in his finest performance thus far, manhandling and battering Michael Chandler (23-10, 18 finishes) right into a third-round TKO victory.
“Anybody else got any questions?” he screamed into the camera, a shot on the doubters of his progression up the UFC ranks.
Pimblett also called for a fight against one among the highest 155-pounders within the promotion: either Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira or Arman Tsarukyan.
Preceding Pimblett’s impressive performance, Yair Rodriguez (20-5, 13 finishes) outclassed debuting longtime Bellator star Patricio Pitbull (36-8, 24 finishes) via three-round decision, heating up within the third round after a tepid begin to their key featherweight clash.
Rodriguez, the previous interim titleholder at 145 kilos, afterward called for a title fight against Volkanovksi in his native Mexico when the UFC returns south of the border in September.
Former light heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes (15-4, 12 finishes), a former Stony Brook defensive back, opened the pay-per-view portion of the event with a one-hitter quitter KO of Nikita Krylov (30-10, 28 finishes), flattening him with a left hand in the primary round to run his win streak to a few after having previously lost 4 straight.
The subsequent bout — coming after the UFC announced women’s MMA legend Amanda Nunes as a member of its Hall of Fame Class of 2025 — saw Jean Silva (16-2, 15 finishes) tap out Bryce Mitchell (17-3, 10 finishes) via second-round ninja choke, extending his meteoric stand up the featherweight ranks.
In essentially the most pivotal fight on the prelims, Virna Jandiroba (22-3, 15 finishes) dominated ex-title challenger Yan Xiaonan (19-5, nine finishes) together with her grappling for a unanimous decision victory and solidifying her case to be the subsequent to face women’s strawweight champ Zhang Weili.
Other victory on the preliminary portion were Dan Ige (via third-round TKO over Sean Woodson), Chase Hooper (via decision against Jim Miller), Julian Erosa (via round-one TKO vs. Darren Elkins), Michał Oleksiejczuk (via first-round TKO against Sedriques Dumas), Sumudaerji (via decision over Mitch Raposo), Marco Tulio (via second-round TKO vs. Tresean Gore) and Nora Cornolle (via round-two submission against Hailey Cowan).
