Former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski wants a fight with Dustin Poirier.
‘The Great’ hasn’t competed since his title defense against Ilia Topuria in February. That fight saw Alexander Volkanovski’s historic featherweight reign come to an end in stunning fashion. ‘El Matador’ ended the Australian’s title reign with a brutal second-round stoppage victory.
In the months since then, Alexander Volkanovski has called for a rematch with Topuria. However, the newly crowned champion has instead shown interest in a potential bout with Max Holloway. For his part, ‘Blessed’ is coming off a violent knockout victory over Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 in April.
In the event that Alexander Volkanovski can’t fight for featherweight gold, he wants a lightweight fight instead. Speaking in an interview on Israel Adesanya’s YouTube channel, the former champion discussed his future. There, Volkanovski called for fights with former lightweight titleholders, Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier.
RELATED: JON JONES ANNOUNCES DATE FOR UFC RETURN AGAINST STIPE MIOCIC: “IT’S REALLY HAPPENING”
Former UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski calls for a fight with Dustin Poirier
While Alexander Volkanovski has called to fight both men before and mentioned a bout with Dustin Poirier last month. For his part, ‘The Diamond’ is fresh off a fifth-round submission loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 last month. While Poirier has mentioned retirement as of late, Volkanovski would love the chance to fight him.
“I want an exciting fight like a Charles Oliveria, and I did call out [Dustin] Poirier.” Alexander Volkanovski stated in the interview. “He’s a great dude and we get along. I think he’s a good man and obviously, it’s a big fun fight. There’s history there with mutual opponents we’ve fought. He used to fight at featherweight and stuff like that.”
He continued, “Obviously, he’s a big name, and a fun fight that would be. So, that’s exciting… The UFC knows that [my next featherweight fight will be for a title] and I know that. At lightweight, we can have a bit of fun. Something exciting, a big fight that excites me.”
What do you make of these comments from the former UFC featherweight champion? Do you want to see Alexander Volkanovski vs. Dustin Poirier?
