Alexander Volkanovski punches past Diego Lopes,…
The man for the land Down Under is back on high.
More than a 12 months after Ilia Topuria knocked him off his perch, Alexander Volkanovski recovered the since-vacated featherweight title on Saturday night time with a unanimous determination victory, 49-46, 49-46, 48-47, victory over Diego Lopes within the UFC 314 foremost occasion in Miami.
The title had been lately vacated by Topuria after the previous champ resolved to maneuver up to light-weight.
Alexander Volkanovski throws a kick towards Diego Lopes during their featherweight championship bout on April 12, 2025 in Miami. REUTERS
Volkanovski (27-4, 16 finishes), who had not competed since Topuria knocked him out final February, took the combat to Lopes (26-7, 22 finishes) early, attacking with fast punches to the top and seeming to steal some of the spirit from his opponent.
But Lopes, a Brazilian who has settled in Mexico, got here to life with a transient knockdown of Aussie late within the second spherical.
Volkanovksi was undeterred, coming back with a robust third body and weathering fourth-round hassle within the type of a punch that disrupted his eyesight to close the fifth and ultimate spherical robust.
In the co-main occasion, rising star Paddy Pimblett (23-3, 17 finishes) didn’t need the complete scheduled 5 rounds to show in his most interesting efficiency up to now, manhandling and battering Michael Chandler (23-10, 18 finishes) into a third-round TKO victory.
“Anybody else got any questions?” he screamed into the digital camera, a shot on the doubters of his development up the UFC ranks.
Pimblett additionally known as for a combat towards one of the highest 155-pounders within the promotion: both Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira or Arman Tsarukyan.
Paddy Pimblett appears to be like to land strikes whereas on the back of Michael Chandler during their light-weight combat at UFC 314. AP
Preceding Pimblett’s spectacular efficiency, Yair Rodriguez (20-5, 13 finishes) outclassed debuting longtime Bellator star Patricio Pitbull (36-8, 24 finishes) by way of three-round determination, heating up within the third spherical after a tepid begin to their key featherweight conflict.
Rodriguez, the previous interim titleholder at 145 kilos, afterward known as for a title combat towards Volkanovksi in his native Mexico when the UFC returns south of the border in September.
Former mild heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes (15-4, 12 finishes), a former Stony Brook defensive back, opened the pay-per-view portion of the occasion with a one-hitter quitter KO of Nikita Krylov (30-10, 28 finishes), flattening him with a left hand within the first spherical to run his win streak to 3 after having beforehand misplaced 4 straight.
Dominick Reyes flooring Nikita Krylov with a punch of their mild heavyweight bout during UFC 314. Zuffa LLC
The subsequent bout — coming after the UFC introduced girls’s MMA legend Amanda Nunes as a member of its Hall of Fame Class of 2025 — noticed Jean Silva (16-2, 15 finishes) faucet out Bryce Mitchell (17-3, 10 finishes) by way of second-round ninja choke, extending his meteoric rise up the featherweight ranks.
In probably the most pivotal combat on the prelims, Virna Jandiroba (22-3, 15 finishes) dominated ex-title challenger Yan Xiaonan (19-5, 9 finishes) together with her grappling for a unanimous determination victory and solidifying her case to be the subsequent to face girls’s strawweight champ Zhang Weili.
Other victory on the preliminary portion had been Dan Ige (by way of third-round TKO over Sean Woodson), Chase Hooper (by way of determination towards Jim Miller), Julian Erosa (by way of round-one TKO vs. Darren Elkins), Michał Oleksiejczuk (by way of first-round TKO towards Sedriques Dumas), Sumudaerji (by way of determination over Mitch Raposo), Marco Tulio (by way of second-round TKO vs. Tresean Gore) and Nora Cornolle (by way of round-two submission towards Hailey Cowan).
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