Alexander Volkanovski is looking to regain his throne atop the featherweight division on Sunday when he fights Diego Lopes in the UFC 314 main event.
UFC 314: Volkanovski vs Lopes | SUN 13 APRIL | Australia’s Alexander Volkanovski looks to become a two-time World Champion as he takes on Brazil’s Diego Lopes for the vacant Undisputed Featherweight title, in Miami | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.
Follow along below for live, round-by-round updates in oure blog from 12pm AEST, or continue scrolling for the latest news and opinion ahead of Volkanovski’s return.
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MAMMOTH DRAKE BET SPELLS TROUBLE FOR VOLKANOVSKI
History is already against Alexander Volkanovski in Sunday’s UFC 314 main event as the Australian faces Diego Lopes for the vacant featherweight title.
Not only has no fighter claimed an undisputed championship after back-to-back losses, but fighters 35 and older in title fights at welterweight or below hold a collective 3-25 record.
And as if that wasn’t already enough for Volkanovski to contend with, now he has the Drake curse to contend with after the rapper bet $545,000 ($A873,000) on the Australian.
Betting on three Adesanya fights alone has cost Drake an estimated $5.6 million while Jake Paul, Jorge Masvidal and Francis Ngannou are among other fighters to have fallen victim to the curse.
HALL OF FAMER QUESTIONS VOLKANOVSKI’S ‘DRASTIC’ MOVE
If Volkanovski joins them, it won’t be because he didn’t do enough work in the lead-up to Sunday’s fight. In fact, one UFC Hall of Famer has questioned whether he did too much.
Volkanovski is the “leanest I’ve ever been” after a strict ban on both alcohol and cheat meals during his fight camp, which has now hit the 16-week mark.
This is a very different version of Volkanovski to the one that fought Islam Makhachev on just 12 days’ notice in 2023, and that’s not just because it took place at 155 pounds.
Rather, Volkanovski also revealed he was “drinking every day” before taking that last-minute fight. This time around, Volkanovski has fully committed himself and is hoping for a different result.
Although Daniel Cormier suggested on the UFC’s official weigh-in show that it may not be the right approach.
UFC 314 ULTIMATE GUIDE: Everything you need to know ahead of Sunday’s card
START TIME: When is Alexander Volkanovski fighting for the title?
Volk caught between heated war of words! | 02:10
“So, my thing is this,” the Hall of Famer explained.
“When you are Alexander Volkanovski and you’ve done as much as he has done. Obviously, he knows how to become a champion.
“I always worry when a great champion or someone who’s been at the top for a long time starts making drastic changes, because then they’re searching.
“You don’t need to search, you know what it takes to become the man. Maybe clean things up a little bit, but you lost to Ilia and Islam twice.”
He has a point. Losing to two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, especially when one of the three fights was on late notice, is hardly a death knell for Volkanovski’s career.
But as for the validity of Volkanovski’s strict, new-look fight camp, both Chris Weidman and Laura Sanko didn’t share Cormier’s concerns.
“He was known as one of the greatest of all time. Then he goes on a two-fight losing streak, so you could either keep doing the same things that got you there and just take it as I had a bad night or you start changing some things,” the former UFC middleweight champion said.
“For him to go 16 weeks without any alcohol, without having one cheat meal, dialled in — that’s kind of crazy. Typically, we see guys do eight weeks and not have alcohol and eat relatively healthy, but no cheat meals is kind of crazy.”
UFC 314: Volkanovski vs Lopes | SUN 13 APRIL | Australia’s Alexander Volkanovski looks to become a two-time World Champion as he takes on Brazil’s Diego Lopes for the vacant Undisputed Featherweight title, in Miami | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View.
Volk teases UFC Gold game plan | 10:14
Sanko, meanwhile, said it was more about the “mentality” than aiding the weight cutting process.
“It’s not the calories of the alcohol… lots of people drink alcohol during camp. It’s fine,” she said.
“It’s not the calories in the cheat meals. It is knowing that you have done it all and done it for an extended period of time and that’s it.”
Volkanovski’s return after 14 months away from the octagon caps off a stacked main card, which gets underway at 12pm as Nikita Krylov and Dominick Reyes face off.
The next fight pits Bryce Mitchell and Jean Silva against each other and is sure to deliver fireworks considering the verbal blows the pair have traded all week.
Should Volkanovski have his hand raised on Sunday, his next title defence may come against Patricio Pitbull if the hyped Bellator champion makes a statement against former featherweight challenger Yair Rodriguez in his UFC debut.
Finally, the co-main event sees two men with plenty to prove meet as veteran Michael Chandler looks to halt his losing skid against a potential title contender in the undefeated Paddy Pimblett.
THREE FINISHES IN ACTION-PACKED EARLY PRELIMS
The early prelims kicked off in the women’s bantamweight division as Nora Cornolle put the disappointment of missing weight behind her, securing a submission win over Hailey Cowan.
Elsewhere, Marco Tulio brought the crowd to its feet with a brutal second-round TKO victory over Tresean Gore in an early ‘Fight of the Night’ contender in Miami.
Gore landed early with a big right hand and then rocked Tulio with a hard left hook and at that point early in the first round, while the Brazilian was still staying active it was the American who had the better moments of the two.
That flipped midway through the round though as Tulio came to life, mixing in brutal body kicks with nasty combinations upstairs, eventually dropping Gore late in the first round.
There was little doubting Gore’s toughness though as he survived the initial onslaught and even fired back with an overhand right before Tulio capped off an action-packed first round with a spinning back kick to the face.
It didn’t take long for Tulio to floor Gore again, dropping the American with another nasty show before unloading elbows that would’ve ended any other fight.
But Gore again was somehow able to survive, although not for long.
Eventually the damage was all too much for Gore as Tulio dropped him one final time with a brutal right hand, swarming in to inflict further pain only for the referee to step in and stop the fight.
Up next, Sumudaerji halted a three-fight losing skid as he scored a unanimous decision win (29-28 x2, 28-29) over Mitch Raposo.
Raposo was able to take Sumudaerji a number of times but ‘The Tibetan Eagle’ never really looked bothered, quite comfortably getting to his feet on every occasion while also landing strikes in the clinch after working his way back up.
All in all, Sumudaerji had the clear advantage in significant strikes (45-9) and was the far more active of the two as the flyweight veteran sealed a much-needed victory.
Rounding out the action, Michal Oleksiejczuk outclassed Sedriques Dumas to claim a first-round TKO victory.
Dumas was visibly frustrated after the referee stepped in to stop the fight as Oleksiejczuk unleashed the ground-and-pound but didn’t seem to be landing much clean.
Dumas was blocking up pretty well, although he wasn’t offering much back in return.
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