UFC champion demands high-profile title defense and Makhachev rematch 

Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284. Photo via Twitter (UFC)

UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is known to be a busy man. At a recent media scrum, the active Australian 34-year-old gave the outlines of his future plan as a UFC fighter.

“Obviously you’ve got the Ilia fight,” Volkanovski recently said. “That’s always going to be there. You’ve got that rematch that I want. I want to be active. Obviously Islam and Charles [Oliveira] are going at it soon. I don’t want to be waiting around so I’ll do early next year I think. I wanted this year but I think the schedule this year is not going to be able to fit me in. I think there’s a few champions that need to be fighting, which is fair, but I would have been happy to get one in this year. I really wanted three this year but it’s not looking likely. But early next year we’ll get it in and then hopefully another one not too long after that.”

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Alexander Volkanovski wants Ilia Topuria

The next fight that makes sense for the featherweight champion, against Ilia Topuria, could happen sooner rather than later as he does not like to be waiting around.

“It’s not like I’m looking past my opponent, but I’ve got full confidence in me doing my work in that featherweight division with Ilia. He’s tough, durable, but I’ll just keep showing that I’m on a whole other level and then I’ve got that fight. I’m being told Islam wants to be very active, so as long as the schedule still fits the same for me, I don’t care too much.”

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