This past weekend UFC fans witnessed the falling of a featherweight king, and arguably the featherweight GOAT (greatest of all time). In a time frame of 8:32 minutes into the fight (3:32 of the second round) fans would watch the first fall of Alexander Volkonovski in his featherweight class.
Going undefeated for 13 fights in the featherweight division, 6 of which being title defenses, fans at one point in time could say it felt as if Volk couldn’t lose. Losing a questionable double title opportunity, Volk would emerge in a one week time frame to rematch the infamous lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev.
Volk would lose via knockout in the first. After two lost opportunities at becoming a double champion Volk was forced to focus on his division once again. However, many people questioned if he would be the same dominant champion we once saw, as knockouts can change a fighters career indefinitely.
This was evident in the buildup to the fight, especially with analyst and card predictions.
“Let’s not avoid the questions following Volkanovski, which include both his age (35) and the fact that he’s only four months removed from a short-notice knockout loss to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in their rematch.”
In the second round of the championship bout Volk would catch a collage of punches thrown at him, weaving and slipping all of them… Except for the last one, which would be a right hook landing flush on Volk’s head, ultimately knocking him out.
As we see Volk gets dethroned as he dethroned Max Holloway, and as Max dethroned Jose Aldo, the torch has been passed to the newest great talent in the featherweight division… Ilia Topuria.
This questions whether we’ll see an immediate rematch between the two fighters or if Ilia will be fed another opponent?
Either way, the featherweight division has just been shook, and it’s time to see who will stay keeping their balance. Will it be Ilia? Or will the Volk come and take back his crown?
