Alexander Volkanovski Beats Diego Lopes By UD to Win Featherweight Title at UFC 314

Alexander Volkanovski once again became the UFC featherweight champion with a unanimous decision win over Diego Lopes in the main event of UFC 314 from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.

Volkanovski answered any questions about whether his offense has lost a step early in the fight. He landed some powerful hooks in the opening round that rattled Lopes and established an early lead. 

The Great continued a strong start into the second round. He looked sharp with his boxing and Lopes didn’t have many answers until the end of the round when he buzzed Volkanovski with a crisp two-punch combination. 

The exchange offered a glimmer of hope for Lopes. Volkanovski came out firing and won most of the exchanges, but Lopes didn’t give up on finding a home for that right hand again. 

That strategy paid off in the fourth quarter when Lopes landed another one cleanly. Volkanovski was clearly impacted, but ended up surviving the exchange. 

Both put up strong final arguments to win the title with Volkanovski’s clean punching going against Lopes’s power in an exciting final stanza. 

The win gives the 36-year-old another storied chapter of his career.

Volkanovski has already made a strong case as the greatest featherweight of all time. Adding another title reign to his impressive career is only going to make that argument stronger.

The featherweight division is traditionally not kind to older champions. That has been evident even for Volkanovski as he lost his title to Ilia Topuria back in February 2024.

However, Topuria's decision to vacate the title to go up to lightweight opened the door for Volkanovski to reclaim the throne that he's defended five times in his career.

He won't have much time to celebrate, though. There's another younger challenger with an eye set on the title in 31-year-old Movsar Evloev.

“I’m telling you that I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna win the belt and I’ll call out (Movsar Evloev) so he can probably wait if he wants to,” Volkanovski said on The Ariel Helwani Show (h/t Jordan Ellis of Bloody Elbow).

“I’m winning that title and I’ll fight him three months later, tell me the date that we can do it and I’ll call the shots that night."

Evloev has a 19-0 record with his last three wins coming against Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen and Lopes.

Pairing the rising star with one of the greatest fighters in the division's history could be a huge featherweight fight brewing.