Featherweight is the division of the UFC’s great champions.
Jose Aldo. Conor McGregor. Max Holloway. Alexander Volkanovsky. Ilia Topuria.
That’s all. The belt rarely changes hands, and when it does, the new champion establishes himself at least among the best in the world. seriously, Conor McGregor is the weakest name on this list in terms of career accomplishments and was one of the most special fighters to grace the 145-pound roster.
After UFC 333However, there is no argument that Volkanovski is alone … which pains Jose Aldo to admit.
Two years ago, Volkanovski’s championship career ended. Simple facts loomed large for “The Great One.” Not only has he lost three of his last four fights, but the two men who defeated him three times were champions in the two possible divisions Volkanovski competes in. There was no way back to the gold, and Volkanovski lost consecutive fights by knockout.
Retirement would have been a perfectly reasonable example.
Instead, luck favored Volkanovski, and luck plays a role in every fighter’s career. Volkanovski could not control Topuria or Islam Makhachovbut both men decided to move up a division. Suddenly, the path back to featherweight gold was … well, not exactly clear, but at least possible. And so Volkanovski defied every statistic in the book about age and champions to overcome class Diego Lopes — bigger, more powerful and seven years younger — not once, but twice.
Lopes simply didn’t have the skills to keep up with the crafty veteran.
Last night, Volkanovski proved that he is not only a bad style for Lopes, but also the No. 1 ranked Movsar Evloev as well. Many of us remembered Volkanovski’s tremendous first anti-wrestling performance (in a loss) against Makhachev and expected Evloyev to have a hell of a time, and those predictions were justified. The Australian didn’t struggle much to deny, escape and/or reverse Evloev’s backhands. He is an undefeated fighter who has fought every opponent he has faced.
Does the fact that Evloev is a stylistically favorable match for Volkanovski diminish Volkanovski’s accomplishments? Absolutely not! Evloev is a terrible matchup for many great fighters, including some of the aforementioned past champions. In addition, Volkanovski tends to have a very poor stylistic fit for most opponents because he’s just so damn good, so profoundly skilled, that he wins dominantly in all kinds of ways and makes great opponents look limited.
Volkanovski’s second title reign has left him undisputed. There is no longer any question that Volkanovski is the greatest 145-pound fighter of all time. Instead, he should now be prominently featured in conversations with people like Jon Jones and George St. Pierre on the all-time lists.
That he reached such heights after brutal knockout losses makes him both unique and especially admirable.
For full UFC 333 results and submissions, click the button here.
