Alexander Volkanovski shuts down talks of fighting Diego Lopes

Former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has shut down talks of him fighting Diego Lopes.

Lopes has called out Volkanovski and has expressed interest in fighting him for an interim title or a No. 1 contender. However, Volkanovski says he has no interest as he’s focused on fighting Ilia Topuria for the belt.

🚨 Alexander Volkanovski provides an update on his next fight and shuts down rumors of a fight with Diego Lopes:

“Obviously, we’re fighting for the title… there’s no talks of [me fighting Diego Lopes] at all.”

🎥 @alexvolkanovski #UFC #MMApic.twitter.com/Rf2KAPtPNz

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 21, 2024

“I don’t know where that sort of [came] from.” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “I think the fact that he’s obviously said, ‘Let’s do it in Sydney,’ I think people just ran with that. There’s no talks to that at all. You never know, right? But, yeah, obviously we’re going to fight for the title so that’s where we’re mainly going to focus, but we’ll see what happens. There is definitely nothing locked in.”

With Volkanovski saying his next fight will be against Topuria, it’s uncertain when that fight will be.

Alexander Volkanovski is uncertain when the Ilia Topuria rematch will happen

Even though Alexander Volkanovski says his next fight will be against Ilia Topuria, he’s uncertain when the fight will happen.

Volkanovski says he would love for it to be in Sydney but he says he is ready for whenever the date will be.

“We don’t know exactly what is going on yet,” Volkanovski added. “Obviously we’re fighting for the title. When is that going to be? That’s sort of a question, so let’s see if we can get a stadium in Spain. Obviously, that’s an option. Could Sydney still be an option? If so, I’m going to stay fit, making sure [of that], because I’ll be getting close to camp now anyway if we do make Sydney. So, I’ll just get stuck in training so we will see what happens. We’ll see what happens, but nothing locked in yet.”

Volkanovski is 26-4 as a pro and coming off the KO loss to Topuria back in February. The former featherweight champ had defended his title five times.