UFC 325: Volkanovski vs Lopes 2 - Jan 31 🇦🇺

[wandshogun09]

Back ‘Down Under’ as the Octagon returns to Sydney…

PARAMOUNT+ MAIN CARD
Alexander Volkanovski©️vs Diego Lopes - Featherweight Title 

Dan Hooker vs Benoit Saint Denis 

Rafael Fiziev vs Mauricio Ruffy

Tai Tuivasa vs Tallison Teixeira 

Quillan Salkilld vs Jamie Mullarkey

PARAMOUNT+ PRELIMS
Junior Tafa vs Billy Elekana

Cam Rowston vs Cody Brundage 

Jacob Malkoun vs Torrez Finney

Jonathan Micallef vs Oban Elliott 

Kaan Ofli vs Yi Zha

Sang Wook Kim vs Dom Mar Fan - Road To UFC Lightweight Final 

Keiichiro Nakamura vs Sebastian Szalay - Road To UFC Featherweight Final 

Lawrence Lui vs Sulang Rangbo - Road To UFC Bantamweight Final 

 

A sharp comedown from the quality of 324 the week before. It’s the main event hurting this one for me. I just feel like Volk vs Lopes 2 is dead on arrival. The first fight feels too recent and it was too one-sided to justify going straight back to it. Had it been Lerone Murphy or Movsar Evloev in the opposite corner to Volk here, this card would be more interesting on the whole to me. On a positive note, I love both the Hooker/BSD and Fiziev/Ruffy fights. Both likely bangers there, so that helps. Below that though, aside from the odd prelim, it’s not great at all. Oh well. I’ll update the bout order as it changes, like always. Not gonna bother previewing them Road To UFC fights, I don’t have a clue who any of them are and just can’t be arsed to do the digging. Soz.

 

 

Alexander Volkanovski vs Diego Lopes 2 tops the bill then. A rematch not a single soul asked for but we’re stuck with it for some reason. A real head scratcher to me this one. The first fight was less than a year ago and was in no way controversial or particularly close. Volk won clearly. So the decision to run it back now really doesn’t make much sense. If the Featherweight division was as shallow as Heavyweight or Light Heavyweight I might understand. But 145 is quite healthy at the moment. It’s not like there’s a lack of challengers. And in this specific case you had a choice of two obvious and deserving contenders in Lerone Murphy and Movsar Evloev. And not just that, either of them would’ve been fresh fights for Volk. Why at this late stage in Volk’s career are they making him face the same guy twice in a row for no reason when he literally just schooled him?

So yeah, Volk beat Lopes on points in his last fight at UFC 314 in Miami back in April. Think I had it 4-1 for Volk on the first watch. I’ll probably do my usual rewatch and review in here. As one-sided fights go, it was fairly entertaining from what I remember. Lopes did have his moments earlier in the fight, even dropping Volk in the second round. But as the fight went on, Volk’s experience and quality shone through and he just pulled ahead and put some distance between them on the cards. There was no doubt who the winner was when it was all done and dusted. Volk really needed this win. He was coming off those back-to-back bad knockout losses to Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria, and then 14 months of inactivity after. There were doubts and lots of talk of him being on the decline as a result but I always felt like that was a tad overblown myself. At 37 years old, it’d be foolish to think Volk’s in his absolute prime. But some of the talk after those Makhachev and Topuria losses was suggesting he was washed up and shot. I didn’t buy it. It’s worth remembering who he lost to, two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the game who were at their peak when he fought them. Not to mention the Makhachev fight was on short notice. I don’t think Volk is in prime form anymore but I definitely think the talk of him being done was premature. He proved in the Lopes fight that not only was he still able to take a big shot and recover, but that he still had plenty left in the tank.

The talk in the immediate aftermath of the fight, from what I remember, was mostly about Evloev being next in line. But oddly, even back then there was a lot of noise about a Volk vs Yair Rodriguez rematch. Another guy Volk had already soundly beaten. Made zero sense. Thankfully that talk fizzled out. And then in August, Lerone Murphy scored one of the best knockouts of the year with his brutal spinning elbow KO against Aaron Pico. I think everyone assumed after that KO that we’d be seeing a Volk vs Murphy title fight next. It seemed like that was the most obvious next move, or failing that, it’d be Volk vs Evloev. Then in September…

Lopes stopped Jean Silva in the second round of their wild main event on the Noche card. One of my favourite fights of 2025 and a proper rollercoaster. Lopes was bossing the first round and really done a number on Silva to the point it looked very close to being stopped. Silva survived, rallied back and was busting Lopes up on the feet in the second. Then towards the end of that round, went for the kill and Lopes made him pay with a nasty spinning elbow (man, 2025 really was the year of the spinning elbow, wasn’t it?) and put Silva away shortly after. It was a strong win in a really fun fight and a great way for Lopes to bounce back from the loss to Volk in April. In the immediate fallout of that win, I remember his name did start getting thrown into the title shot mix along with Murphy and Evloev but I think everyone thought he’d be the least likely choice considering him and Volk had just fought. I know I thought it was silly talk. But here we are. In November, Volk vs Lopes 2 was officially announced.

You feeling this? I know I’ve been really negative here. I do expect this’ll be entertaining enough to watch, it’s not like I think it’ll be a bad fight or anything. It’s just, we’ve seen it eight months ago. It wasn’t some razor close back and forth war where you might at least kind of get why they’d wanna do it again. Why are we doing this? As exciting as Diego’s win over Silva was, it didn’t warrant him leapfrogging the other contenders and getting another crack at the gold. The only argument I’ve seen from some fans is basically ‘fuck the boring fighters, they’re rewarding exciting fighters now.’ But Murphy literally just knocked Pico dead with a legitimate Knockout Of The Year contender. He hasn’t always been the most exciting to watch but now of all times isn’t the time when you can make that case against him. Him and Evloev are both undefeated, both in the Top 5 and are the two highest ranked guys that Volk hasn’t fought yet. How can anyone want to see a re-run of a one-sided fight over that? I don’t blame Lopes. Of course he’s gonna jump on this opportunity. What’s he gonna do, turn it down? But as a spectator, it’s not very appealing when there are new and more interesting options available. Even Volk himself has been quoted where he seemed a bit surprised that it wasn’t Murphy’s or Evloev’s name on the contract sent to him. The worst thing is, this might well be Volk’s last fight. There were some rumblings about that not too long ago but Volk’s since shot that talk down and said he’s gonna stick around. Who knows?

“I’m seeing retirement rumours everywhere. I don’t know where that comes from. No. It hasn’t been planned to be my last fight. You don’t need to really worry about that. I think we’re just gonna take it as it goes from here on, but there are definitely no plans for that.”

“I called for Evloev straight after the fight (with Lopes). Then he was gonna be fighting Pico, then he pulled out. I know he was meant to postpone, then he didn’t take it. I’m like, ‘Well, there goes your opportunity’. So it wasn’t long before I knew that fight (Evloev) wouldn’t happen. That’s the thing, man. I feel for him in a sense because I know he definitely deserved it, that’s why I called for him. But I totally understand how this game works. You can’t be that guy. You’ve gotta be the guy that’s willing to fight anyone, anywhere, put your hand up. And Lerone Murphy did do that. He fought a guy on short notice in Pico, got a massive finish, so I thought it was gonna be him in December. Then I knew the UFC were waiting for Jean Silva and Diego, so I was like, ‘Maybe it’s gonna be one of these guys, let’s see what happens, let’s see if this is gonna be a fun fight’. And it was. And that’s what they went with.”

“It don’t matter. We’ll see what happens. Whether Evloev and Murphy fight somebody else or each other, prove themselves. And then I’ll fight them straight after. So don’t worry. They won’t miss their opportunity if they back themselves, take another fight - or wait, whatever. But I don’t think waiting’s a good idea. As I said, take your opportunities just like Lopes did and this is where you’ll be.”

“No disrespect to Lopes but I can go out there and make it look easy. He’s gonna think he’s levelled up, I’m gonna show him that’s not the case. I don’t know where his head’s gonna be after this one. I think I’m gonna go out there and really make a statement and show him that I’m still that guy. I don’t wanna take damage like last time, I don’t want everyone to be on the edge of their seat.” - Alexander Volkanovski

So it doesn’t sound like he’s planning to call it a day. And I like that he’s actively throwing out Murphy and Evloev by name as guys he thinks deserve a shot. But you know how it goes. I’d imagine he’ll beat Lopes fairly comfortably again but who the fuck knows anymore? After the way Yan vs Merab 2 played out, I don’t feel confident predicting any rematch anymore. Even if Volk wins again but it’s a tougher fight this time and it’s a bit of a war, he might rethink his stance on retirement. Things change quickly in MMA. I’d like to see him stick around and face Murphy and Evloev. It’s not like he looks bad out there at all, he’s clearly still operating on a high level. But 37 is a good innings for a Featherweight and you just never know when Father Time is gonna catch up to a fighter. Sometimes it creeps up on them slowly, sometimes it seems to just happen overnight. On the one hand it would seem fitting for him to have his farewell fight in Sydney. But if this does turn out to be his swansong, it’s gonna be even more mind boggling and frustrating in hindsight that they wasted it on a pointless rematch. Oh well. We’ll roll with it. We’ve got no choice have we?

 

Dan Hooker vs Benoit Saint Denis is co-main event. Not a blockbuster co-main for a PPV (sorry are we calling these things PLE’s now?) but purely as a fight, this should be a belter. Can’t see how this isn’t just wall to wall pure violence. Not sure if it’s five rounds or three but it should be chaos for however long it lasts. Bit surprised to see Hooker back so soon though after that beating he took from Arman Tsarukyan on the Qatar card in November. Feels like too quick of a turnaround but he’s about to turn 36 in February and has only fought once a year for the last couple of years so maybe that’s partly why he’s urgent to get back in there. The sand timer is running down for him at this point, especially after some of the wars he’s been in. He was on a three fight win streak before that Tsarukyan loss but the way that fight went down obviously set him back big time. 

Saint Denis is coming in fresh off a 16 second knockout victory over Beneil Dariush on the MSG card in November. After a disastrous 2024 which saw him get chinned by Dustin Poirier and then beaten to a bloody pulp by Renato Moicano, he rebounded in style by going 3-0 with three finishes in 2025. He subbed Kyle Prepolec in Montreal in May, schooled and subbed Mauricio Ruffy in Paris in September, then walloped Dariush in November. He’s currently sitting at #8 in the rankings so he’s right back on track at this point. A win over Hooker (ranked #6) would be another step in the right direction and a great start to the year for him. Not sure how it’s gonna play out though. When the fight was announced most of the responses I saw were along the lines of ‘RIP Dan’ and stuff. But I don’t know. A lot of fans always seem to go off whatever the result of a fighter’s most recent fight was when predicting their next one. So they look at Hooker getting squished by Tsarukyan and then they look at BSD crushing Dariush in 16 seconds and automatically assume Hooker’s getting run over here. But I feel like this is a bit of a 50/50 fight. And to be fair, in their last fights Hooker had a much tougher task ahead of him against Tsarukyan than Benoit did against an ageing Dariush. It’s not as simple as ‘Fighter A won his last fight easily and Fighter B lost his last fight badly = Fighter A wins’. There’s always context. There’s a chance Benoit goes the grappling route because of the success Tsarukyan had against Hooker but he’s not the grappler Tsarukyan is so I’m not sure how well that would work for him. Most likely this is gonna descend into a blood and guts dogfight and that’s both guys bread and butter. Could go either way but should be a lot of fun to watch regardless.

 

Rafael Fiziev vs Mauricio Ruffy is another cracking fight and I’m giving it the ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** spotlight here. Something about this fight just really jumped out to me. They’ve both had their setbacks and both have their flaws but just thinking about their styles, I think they match up for a potentially really cool fight. I’ve seen enough of both now that I’m not expecting either to ever make a dent in the title picture at 155 but there’s plenty of fun fights to make with both of these guys and chucking them in against each other doesn’t upset me one bit. Both are creative strikers and have their own unique styles of attack. Fiziev’s a fast and sharp striker with nasty kicks. He’s coming off a much needed win over Ignacio Bahamondes on the Azerbaijan card in June. That snapped a three fight losing streak and was his first win since coming back from his knee injury. And we’ve seen Ruffy busting out some cool shit already in his short UFC stint. His spinning wheel kick KO over King Green in March was another Knockout Of The Year candidate. He got badly derailed by Benoit Saint Denis in September though and that fight really exposed his weakness in the grappling. But against a guy like Fiziev who just wants to stand and strike, he shouldn’t have to worry about that too much here. I read that Ruffy recently parted ways with the Fighting Nerds team as well. Not sure where he’s training now but I’m always a bit sceptical when a fighter leaves a team immediately after a loss. I don’t know. Maybe it’s the right move for him. What do I know? He clearly needs work on his grappling so maybe a fresh environment will benefit him long term. It always feels a bit knee-jerk though. Love this pairing. I didn’t even think of these two fighting each other but as soon as it was announced it seemed like the most obvious ‘no brainer’ booking ever.

 

Tai Tuivasa vs Tallison Teixeira then. Heavyweight goodness. I’m expecting the grand total of fuck all from this. Don’t know where Tuivasa’s been. He hasn’t fought since August 2024 for some reason. I might be wrong but I don’t even think it was injuries keeping him out. He lost a decision against Jairzinho Rozenstruik in his last fight and that was his fifth loss in a row. So maybe he just stepped away to take a break and try to come back fresh. I thought maybe he saw it as a wake up call and decided to just step away and buckle down and graft in the gym. Then I saw this picture and that thought quickly left my mind completely…

Jaysus. Never seen him bigger. He looks like ‘Big’ John Fisher there. BOSH! To be fair, I have seen a more recent pic and he appears to have dropped some of that weight. Oddly enough, despite being on a 0-5 losing skid and being inactive for the best part of 18 months, he still stayed in the rankings somehow. Currently sitting at #12 as I type but I know he was still in the Top 10 until quite recently. Madness. If anything tells you how bad of a state the Heavyweight division is in these days, it’s that. Not sure what to expect from him here. He’s still only 32, which is relatively young for HW, but he’s just another fat slugger in a division full of them. Teixeira doesn’t seem much good himself though. Big bastard at 6’8” and he’s only just turned 26 years old. But he just got stopped by Derrick Lewis in 35 seconds last time out. In fairness, there was some controversy and mixed opinions on the stoppage. This’ll tell us more. If Teixeira is gonna go on to be anything in the division, he really shouldn’t be losing to a guy who’s coming straight in from the buffet line off five straight losses and 18 months on the shelf.

 

Quillan Salkilld vs Jamie Mullarkey is a late switch. Was originally going to be Salkilld vs Rongzhu, which I was really looking forward to, but Rongzhu’s dropped out just a couple of weeks before show time. Not as into this but it’ll do. I read something on Twitter that this’ll be only the fifth Aussie vs Aussie fight in UFC history. Useless bit of trivia for you there. Ah, it’ll be worth a look for Salkilld anyway. He had a strong first year in the UFC and has basically cemented himself as a ‘must see’ fighter to keep an eye on for me at this point.

That’s how his last fight ended. A terrifying headkick KO over Nasrat Haqparast at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi in October. Genuinely one of the scariest knockouts I’ve ever seen in all my years watching this shit. One of those KOs where you honestly believe you might well have just witnessed someone die. Thankfully that wasn’t the case and Haqparast was able to get up and leave the Octagon on his own power. Eventually. But it was very worrying for a while there. He fell like a sack of potatoes, was out cold before he hit the canvas, his legs were twitching and there was a good five or so minute spell when the camera never went on Haqparast and you could see Salkilld and his corner starting to look very concerned. It was one of those moments when there’s legit relief when you see the guy start moving and talking to the medics and stuff. Salkilld is 10-1 now, just turned 26 years old and he’s gone 3-0 in the UFC since his debut last February, with two first round finishes. Mullarkey’s 31 years old, 18-8 and has lost three of his last five fights. Scrappy guy but a bit of a punching bag. Can’t see past Salkilld putting a beating on him here but we’ll see.

 

Junior Tafa vs Billy Elekana is doing absolutely sod all for me. Tafa’s complete shite. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt in previous fights but he seems like a lost cause. He’s 6-4, has lost three of his last four fights and just got submitted by Tuco Tokkos in his last fight in July. Yeah. It’s going nowhere fast. Can’t even say I remember Elekana and he’s fought in the UFC three times already apparently. He’s 30 years old with a 9-2 record. Got subbed by Bogdan Guskov in his debut in January but has rallied back with wins over Ibo Aslan and whoever Kevin Christian is. Not a clue. Not a care.

 

Cam Rowston vs Cody Brundage is another one that makes this feel a bit Apexy. In this case it’s the Brundage effect. Never rated the bloke at all. He’s 31 years old with a 11-7-1-1 record. And his 2025 consisted of a win, a draw and a loss. Kind of sums him up. He’s arse. Rowston I’m not very familiar with at all. He’s Australian, actually born in Sydney so he’ll obviously be the big crowd favourite here. He’s 30 years old, 13-3 with 12 finishes and he made his UFC debut on the Perth card in September, beating Andre Petroski by first round TKO. Not bad. If he’s even halfway decent he shouldn’t have much trouble with Brundage here. So hopefully another early finish for the ‘Battle Giraffe’ (yeah, me neither) in front of the home crowd.

 

Jacob Malkoun vs Torrez Finney is just there. Malkoun’s nothing special. He’s been on the UFC roster since 2020 and I probably watched all of his fights in the five years since yet I couldn’t tell you a single thing about any of them. He’s Aussie, 8-3 and hasn’t fought since March 2024 when he beat Andre Petroski by TKO. Not sure why he’s been out so long. As for Finney, he’s 27 years old and undefeated at 11-0 with eight finishes. He made his UFC debut back in April and there was a bit of hype on him going in. He’d fought three times on DWCS for some reason before finally being given a shot on a UFC card. Then the night finally came and he proceeded to go out there and absolutely stink the place up with a bad snoozer of a decision win over ham and egger Robert Valentin.

Just an awful fight. Abysmal. Rotten. Finney literally just held him against the fence like that the entire fight. A 15 minute fight that somehow felt like it lasted 15 hours. Any buzz around Finney died right there. Honestly might’ve been the worst fight of 2025. Off the top of my head I’m genuinely struggling to think of a worse one. I don’t know who I was more frustrated with watching it - Finney for making no attempt to do anything but stall out the clock, Valentin for being too shit to do anything about it or the referee for not penalising Finney for his lack of activity. It was so bad I really wouldn’t have been mad if the UFC just gave Finney his walking papers as soon as he stepped his arse out of the Octagon that night. I’ll say it right now if he fights the same again here I’ll never watch him again. Life’s too short.

 

Jonathan Micallef vs Oban Elliott was originally supposed to go down back in September on the Perth card but got binned at the last minute, a day or two before the fight, because Elliott pulled out with an illness of some sort. Might be decent. Micallef’s only fought once in the UFC so far, made his debut on the last Sydney card back in February and battered Kevin Jousset for the decision win. I don’t remember much about it but I do recall thinking Micallef looked pretty good and his kicks did some damage despite him not being able to close the show. He’s Australian, 26 years old with a record of 8-1 and five finishes. Elliott’s Welsh, 28 years old and 12-3 with six finishes. Had some success in Cage Warriors before going on DWCS in 2023 and finally debuting in the UFC in early 2024. He went 3-0 in the UFC initially with the highlight being his brutal KO finish over Bassil Hafez on the MSG card in late 2024. He got derailed last time out though, losing a decision to Seok Hyeon Ko in June. Decent fight this.

 

Kaan Ofli vs Yi Zha. Don’t really know enough about either of these two to give much insight or much of an opinion one way or another. I’ll go through the motions anyway. Ofli is Australian, 32 years old and 12-4-1 with eight of his wins not making it to the judges scorecards. He’s gone 1-2 in the UFC so far, lost his first couple of fights in but finally stopped the rot on the Rio card in October, submitting Ricardo Ramos in the first round. China’s Yi Zha turns 29 just a couple of weeks before this fight and has a record of 26-5 with 20 finishes, mostly submissions. He’s 1-1 in the UFC and just smoked Westin Wilson in 37 seconds on the Shanghai card in August. Wilson’s a complete bum though so not much you can take from that.

 

Tai Tuivasa fight week!

Edited January 30 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

anyone remembered this badboy is tomorrow?

 

 

[Dai]

Not loving the look of this one. The Hooker and Fiziev should be solid bouts and the only things Im looking foward too. Always fun to watch Volk and Lopes too, to be fair, but its certainly not a great numbered main event. Maybe I need to stop thinking of numbered events as any different to the other shows now, and just treat every show as a UFC card. 

[Egg Shen]

Its got a strong Australian/New Zealand influence on it and that harms it but I think the card is pretty strong. I'm up for it all besides the Road to the UFC fights on the prelims.

[Bruce85]

Love watching Volk so will be tuning in but the card isn’t the strongest although I think it’s got the potential to deliver. 
 

Really hoping Volk gets the win here, I like Lopez but can’t not cheer on Volk. 

[Kfogg1991]

Hyped for this one you can't not love VOLK 

Co main is great I'm going with BSD spanking hooker after his comments about Paddy's friend that passed due to mental health 

It's not as stacked as last weekend but it's still good the fight pass prelims being road to UFC finals is a bit bum but with the new finish bonuses they should go and try to get the finish hopefully.

 

24 hours to go for our last numbered UFC event on the paramount era how long till hearing that gets old 

[wandshogun09]

15 hours ago, Egg Shen said:

I'm up for it all besides the Road to the UFC fights on the prelims.

One of them Road To UFC fights is off as well. The Flyweight final got binned because one of the fighters tried some bullshit on the scales, got rumbled, then missed weight. Joker.

I’m not massively hyped for this card but it’s alright. The main card isn’t bad. Tuivasa vs Teixeira is doing nothing for me but will hopefully be short enough to not become a sloppy mess. Quillan Salkilld looks like someone to keep an eye on. And the top three fights all hold some interest for me for different reasons. Hooker vs Saint Denis and Fiziev vs Ruffy feel like they’re guaranteed to be at least good, with serious potential for much more. Main event…I’ve gone into all the reasons I’m not in love with it but what can you do? It’s nearly here now and I’m always gonna be invested in Volk’s fights, whoever he’s in with. It’ll do. 

[wandshogun09]

Revisiting the first Volk vs Lopes fight before tonight’s rematch. Haven’t watched this since it happened but my memory of it is that it was one-way traffic in Volk’s favour, with the exception of one big moment for Lopes.

It went down in April last year and was for the vacant Featherweight belt. If you remember, Ilia Topuria had just vacated the title to move up to Lightweight. So that left these two fighting to crown a new champ. Or in Volk’s case, trying to regain what was his for so long. There were a ton of questions and doubts on Volk going into this fight. As incredible a champion as he’d been, at this point he was coming off those back-to-back bad knockout losses against Makhachev and Topuria, and then had taken an extended leave of absence before this fight. He’d been on the shelf just over a year and that coupled with Lopes being the new dangerous and younger guy on the rise, there was a sense that Volk’s time at the top might be done. I wasn’t sure what to think. While those losses to Makhachev and Topuria were rough, it was still Makhachev and Topuria at their peak. Wasn’t like Volk was losing to jabronis. And while Lopes had been exciting to watch coming up, he was untested at the elite level. Looking back at the thread, I see I picked Volk to win but I did have my doubts like everyone else.

Alexander Volkanovski©️vs Diego Lopes - Vacant Featherweight Title

UFC 314: Volkanovski vs Lopes

April 12th 2025

Miami, Florida 

Here we go then. This was probably my favourite card of 2025 overall but I was a bit nervous for Volk. Usual commentary squad here of Jon Anik, Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier. Referee is Marc Goddard. Ugh. Fucking Trump’s here. Forgot about that.

Round 1: Kind of a cautious start with both testing the waters and trading leg kicks. But within about 90 seconds we get the first proper exchange of punches and Volk lands a right over the top. Volk doing a good job of circling to his right, away from Diego’s power early. Smart in general but especially in this case knowing what a fast, explosive starter Lopes can be. They collide in close quarters again and Volk once again gets the better of it…

Lopes is getting nothing done here early on. And that’s bad news for him because the early rounds were always gonna be his best chance of catching Volk with something nasty. I know I felt like going in, unless Lopes walloped him early doors, it was probably gonna be Volk’s fight to lose. Lopes just can’t find his range and it’s not like Volk’s even doing anything mind blowing. Just moving away from Lopes’ right hand and jabbing a bit. They clash again and a Volk left hook puts Diego back on his heels for a second…

Volk back on the jab now. He’s looking good here. He clinches up with Lopes and almost gets him down but not quite. Lands a nice knee in there though. Lopes briefly gets double underhooks but it goes nowhere and Volk’s got a waist lock and landing some shots. He gets Lopes down with seconds left and lands some decent ground and pound until the buzzer. Easy 10-9 for Volkanovski there.

Round 2: Volk picking up where he left off, outworking Lopes with the jab and movement. Lopes looks lost here. He’s coming forward but either can’t pull the trigger or he’s constantly out of position because Volk’s just out-thinking him. Diego trying to jab a bit with him now and it’s just not gonna work. He’s never gonna win that battle, it’s not his style. I guess he’s kind of out of ideas already though. Nothing he’s tried to do so far has worked. They trade again, it looked like both landed but Lopes once again came off worse, almost falling on his arse but was held up by crashing into the fence. Volk sticking that jab in Diego’s face some more. Diego’s head is a stationary target here. Not good. Less than 30 seconds on the clock and Volk’s feeling it. He’s looking sharp, tagging Lopes at will. Then it happens. With less than 10 seconds to go…

Fuck me. Volk gets clipped and hits the deck. He doesn’t appear badly hurt, he’s getting back up as soon as he touches the canvas and looks OK on his feet. But man. Just shows you can’t lapse even for a nanosecond with a guy like Lopes. He lacks a lot technically but he’s got that power and he’s always game. That’s the second round over and Volk’s bleeding around the eye now as he goes back to the corner.

I’ve still got it 10-9 Volk. Obviously if this was Boxing, that knockdown not only makes it automatically a Lopes round, it makes it 10-8. Different game, different rules. If you did give this round to Lopes, I’m not gonna fight you over it. It’s whatever. But this was about 4:50 of Volk schooling him before that punch landed. It’s bad optics at the end of the round and it’s came at a crucial time for Lopes when he was probably getting really frustrated and needed a boost. But it’s still Volk’s round, in my opinion.

Round 3: Feels like this fight has come alive now and the crowd is buzzing as this round gets underway. Volk doesn’t seem to be feeling any effects of that late knockdown. He looks fine here. It had to lift Diego’s confidence though. Lopes with some wide punches that hit nothing but air but at least he seems a bit more proactive now. He throws a jab and a hard right that catches Volk’s arms and Volk answers with some knuckles directly into Diego’s mush. Volk having success with the jab again. Big left hook from Volk…

Lopes absorbs it but it was a sweet punch. Imagine if Volk had knockout power? It really is the only thing that he’s lacked in his game all these years. He’s taking Lopes to school again here. It’s as if that knockdown never happened now and Lopes looks flustered and bamboozled again. Lopes with a slow as fuck spinning back kick that is miles away from touching Volk. Lopes tries to put some pressure on right at the end but nothing comes of it and that’s another round in the books and another Volk 10-9. So by my scorecard at least, Diego needs a finish at this point. He can’t win on points.

Round 4: Lopes comes out seemingly with a bit more urgency to start this round but quickly finds himself back eating jabs. He looks a bit frazzled now and Volk looks just as sharp as he did in the first round. Another exchange in close and Volk connects with a big right again. Both start throwing, Volk’s landing but somewhere in the chaos Volk gets hit with something. The replays show it was this…

There was also a jab right on the eyebrow from Lopes just before that which seems to have opened up a cut. Volk’s touching it and seems bothered by it and shoots for a takedown but it gets stuffed. Lopes pouring it on now. He’s got Volk on the retreat for the first time in the fight. Volk fires back and Lopes lands a left hook. Shaky moments for Volk here but he does a good job of avoiding further damage and it settles back down with about a minute to go. Lopes keeps coming at him at the end and that’s the round. That’s Lopes 10-9. So it’s 3-1 or 39-37 to Volk going into the last round by my scoring.

Round 5: Lopes comes out aggressive. He must know he’s down on the cards and most likely needs a finish. He comes at Volk but eats a big overhand right for his efforts. Volk steps in with another nice right and Lopes tries to respond with that shitty slow arse spinning kick again that misses badly. Volk getting the jab going again. He shoots in for a halfhearted takedown attempt and Diego easily defends it. Volk hasn’t had much luck at all with the takedowns in this fight but he hasn’t really fully committed to them either. So I’m not sure how much credit you can give Lopes for defending them. Seems like it’s more a case of Volk shooting so he can keep Diego guessing and then come up high with punches again. Lopes has started leg kicking a bit more in these later rounds but it feels too little, too late at this point. Volk looks up at the clock with just over a minute to go. Lopes chasing him down desperately trying to score that last minute KO. He needs it. It’s not coming though. Both spit on the mat and Lopes starts marching forward, waving Volk on, flexing, shouting and making these big gestures. One thing he isn’t doing though, is landing punches. Volk tries a crafty little trip in an attempt to put the boy back in his place but doesn’t get it. They trade and Volk lands a couple of shots at the end and that’s a wrap. Another Volk round so I’ve got him winning 4-1. 

As soon as the fight ends, the commentators, Rogan in particular, are actually trying to make a case that Lopes might’ve won. He’s giving it the ‘Volkanovski might’ve landed more but Lopes is so powerful you have to weigh up volume vs damage’ or some shite. Like Lopes is some ungodly puncher. And ‘Volk was moving backwards, Lopes was moving forward’. Piss off. You can tell they wanted Lopes to win. But despite the propaganda, this wasn’t a close fight. Entertaining, yeah. And Lopes definitely had some moments. But round by round, this was a Volk win all day.

Winner - Alexander Volkanovski by unanimous decision.

Order restored. Right man won. I guess you could have it closer if you scored that second round for Lopes because of the late knockdown. One of the judges did score it that way. I disagree but fine. Even if I conceded and gave Lopes that round and the fourth, that still leaves three rounds out of a five round fight where Volk outclassed him. I won’t say it was a ‘perfect’ rebound for Volk coming off those Makhachev and Topuria losses because he’d obviously rather not have been dropped and cut and stuff. But to come back from those losses and the layoff and go 25 minutes, mostly schooling a dangerous younger guy who’d been active in Volk’s absence was impressive stuff. With this win, Volk became the first fighter in UFC history to win an undisputed title after back-to-back losses. He also became the first fighter over 35 years old and under 155lbs to win UFC gold. Pretty special. It should’ve been Evloev or Murphy next for Volk but I’ve gone into all that in the opening post. Not gonna flog a dead horse. Whether we like it or not, we’re here now…

How do you see this playing out? For me all logic is telling me Volk goes 2-0. I thought that the second the fight was announced and my opinion hasn’t changed since. I will admit though, I don’t know if it’s just me being a pessimistic prick or what but I’ve got this nagging worry in the back of my mind that Lopes might chin him this time. It’s weird because I know Volk is the better fighter. It’s clear as day he’s the superior fighter and rewatching the first fight here just solidified that. But he is at the end of his career and, for all Lopes’ faults and shortcomings, he does have the ability to hurt Volk when he connects. We saw that. As one-sided as the first fight mostly was, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that Lopes cracks him again. How many of them can Volk recover from? I think he showed in the first Lopes fight that his chin isn’t gone like some were speculating going in. He got tagged and decked and he came back fine and pretty much dominated. But still, he did get dropped early and hurt later. Like I said, I think (hope) I’m just being a glass half empty twat and Volk goes out and puts on a masterclass but we’ll see. I’ve got him winning wide on points again myself. He’s not a big finisher and Lopes is tough so it’s probably going to the scorecards again. I’d love to see Volk end this one inside the distance though.

The man. Don’t overlook the possibility that this could, potentially, maybe be Volk’s last fight as well. When the fight was first announced there was a lot of noise about that and I don’t think it was just fans and media guessing. That rumour started somewhere. Volk’s tried to play it down since but I don’t know. I get the feeling he’s in a bit of a similar situation to what Justin Gaethje was in for last week’s main event. Where if he wins, he’ll see how far he can take this last run on top. But if he loses, that’ll probably be it for him. I guess in that scenario they might just go straight into Lopes vs Volk 3 but I don’t know. It would likely depend how he lost in the situation. Hopefully this works out similar to last week with another win for the old guard. 

[wandshogun09]

Triple post wanker…

[Bruce85]

Well this kinda just felt like something of nothing to me. We have all said what a pointless rematch it felt but watching it really solidified that. Totally pointless. I don’t think it really did anything for either man. I still think Volk is in the GOAT conversation but this didn’t really help his case. 
 

Rest of the card, besides the heavyweight slop, was fairly decent though. Ruffey and BSD both looked really good. The more BSD wins, the more Dustin’s win over him looks impressive. 

[NeverYield]

Shocking fight, first fight was unreal, this one was woeful.

[jimufctna24]

43 minutes ago, Bruce85 said:

I still think Volk is in the GOAT conversation but this didn’t really help his case. 

On this subject. Volk's losses to Makhachev (the first bout) and Topuria are ageing well.

The head kick loss to Makhachev in their rematch doesn't reflect particularly well on Volk. It highlighted Volk's vulnerability to kicks (his first career loss was to a southpaw who buzzed him with kicks), yet the other two losses are not as damning. 

Makhachev was given a good fight by Poirier. Still, Poirier didn't come as close to beating Makhachev as Volk did in Makhachev and Volk's first meeting. Makhachev then beat JDM at 170lbs with relative ease. Elsewhere, Topuria become the first fighter to stop Holloway with strikes and then blitzed Oliveria in just over 2 minutes. 

Edited February 2 by jimufctna24

[Egg Shen]

On 2/2/2026 at 6:42 PM, NeverYield said:

Shocking fight, first fight was unreal, this one was woeful.

Woeful is harsh😄

Decent fight but it just felt like Volk was in control from the off, would have liked to have seen Lopes just sell out and go for it but I think Volk forced him into his type of fight. Lopes isn't ever beating him like that.

Dan Hooker needs to stop fighting at the top level, he's taking some serious damage. That said, the Paddy Pimblett fight is a no brainer, id like to see them coach TUF, sure Paramount would like that too.

Tai Tuivasa needs to go fight bare knuckle. 2 minute rounds are in his future. Couple of fun moments aside this was horrific.

[Dai]

Agree with everyone else on the main event...it happened. What actually happened in the fight, I could not say as I don't remember anything at all about it. Extremely disappointed that Lopes didn't go for it at the end, as he always strikes me as the type of fighter to go for broke. If there was ever a fight to do it then it was this one, but he didnt unfortunately. 

 

Catastrophic error by hooker in attempting that takedown. No idea what he was thinking with that, so stupid. 

 

Didn't mind the Tuivasa fight, as I find it extremely funny/watchable when the heavyweights get so gassed out by Round 2 that they can barely throw a punch. Always makes a good train wreck. 

Edited February 4 by Dai

[wandshogun09]

Watched most of this last weekend and just couldn’t be arsed to post anything 🤣 caught up on the rest now.

Yeah, Volk vs Lopes 2 was just as pointless and just as much of a waste of time as most expected. Actually pisses me off that Volk’s got a very limited amount of fights left at this level and they’ve wasted time on a re-run against a guy who both a) hadn’t earned a rematch and b) didn’t really have the time between the first fight and the rematch to make the necessary adjustments and increase his chances this time. Found it quite amusing though that in the first fight, Volk confused Lopes for much of the fight simply by circling to his right. This time he confused him by circling to his left. And Lopes seemingly had neither the ability or desire to even try to cut him off in either fight. Baffling.

Chuffed that Volk came out with the win all the same. I was fairly confident he was gonna go 2-0 but I did let the doubts start creeping in by about the Friday of fight week. Needn’t have worried. It did feel to me like the UFC had a bit of an agenda here and really would’ve preferred Lopes to get the win. It’s the only logical explanation I can think of for rushing him into another shot at Volk despite losing quite clearly last time and despite there being a choice of two much more worthy contenders in Murphy and Evloev. So, while I like Lopes, seeing Volk come out on top again was very satisfying. The fight itself was flat as fuck to watch though. Wasn’t a fan. I had the first fight 4-1 to Volk and it was still more entertaining to watch than this. Scoring-wise, round by round I actually felt like this might be slightly closer than the first fight, there wasn’t an argument for Lopes winning but I felt like he might’ve possibly nicked one more round than last time. But over the ten rounds they’ve fought, it’s just so clear that Volk, even an older Volk on the way to retirement, is the vastly superior fighter.

If one pic sums up the Volk vs Lopes two fight series 🤣

Volk was talking to the media post-fight and sounded pretty adamant that he wants Murphy or Evloev next. That was before those two were booked against each other for the London card so I’m guessing he’s looking at just waiting for the winner now. I liked what I heard from him. He said he’s “got a responsibility” as champ to fight the legit contenders and doesn’t wanna keep letting guys “cut the line”. Whether the UFC agree with that, we’ll see. But I don’t think they’re on the same page. I did see this…

Jean had a bit of a moan on Twitter, in response to Volk’s comments, about how champions should just defend the belt and “it doesn’t matter who it’s against”. Clearly trying to insinuate himself into the mix. Can’t blame him for trying but he’s literally one fight removed from getting his face busted open like a watermelon by the guy Volk just schooled twice. Jean’s won one fight since. But it honestly wouldn’t shock me if the UFC try to make Volk vs Silva next. They’re clearly not keen on giving Murphy or Evloev the shot or one of them would’ve got it on this card. And the whole point of doing Murphy vs Evloev in London is surely just so they can eliminate one of them from the race. Time will tell. As for Lopes, I think it’s time to do that Yair fight. Whether Yair goes for it is another matter though. If not, maybe Lopes vs Arnold Allen? Or maybe Lopes could give 155 a go?

Benoit Saint Denis battered Dan Hooker. Just crushed him. Hooker taking the Tsarukyan beating and then this one back-to-back, in the space of three months, isn’t a good sign. He’s losing to good fighters but it just feels like he doesn’t quite have the same durability anymore. He’s about to turn 36 and he’s had a bunch of wars so that’s to be expected. Every fighter reaches the end of the road and it feels like we’re at that point with Hooker now. 

Can definitely see them making Pimblett vs Hooker next. It seemed like it was heading that way before this fight but, seeing how Hooker got beat down on the ground, and thinking back to how Paddy beat Chandler, call me a cynic but I think the matchmakers will fancy that as the ideal bounce back fight for their boy Paddy. As for Saint Denis, he’s calling for either the winner of Holloway vs Oliveira or the winner of Topuria vs Gaethje. He then said “but if that doesn’t happen I’ll fight Tsarukyan and take his spot”. I can actually see them doing Tsarukyan vs Saint Denis, to be honest. I don’t think he’s likely to get the names he wants. And the UFC are clearly intending to never give Tsarukyan a title shot. So I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet that the winners of Holloway vs Oliveira and Topuria vs Gaethje will probably face off in the second half of the year. Tsarukyan and Benoit will then likely have to fight each other just to avoid sitting out the rest of the year. And then if Paddy beats Hooker he’ll probably magically find himself ranked #1 overnight and he’ll leapfrog everyone anyway.

Mauricio Ruffy bounced back in style from the Saint Denis loss in Paris last time out. That was a loss that really felt like it exposed a lot of weaknesses in his game and you never know how a fighter will respond to that. He looked really good here, I thought. Considering Fiziev has gone a total 30 minutes with Justin Gaethje and never got finished, Ruffy being able to put him away was a bit of a statement.

I mentioned in the opening post that Ruffy left the Fighting Nerds after the loss in Paris. What I didn’t know until fight week was that he’s now training with Volkanovski. Not gonna completely credit that change for Ruffy’s performance here because it takes more than just one camp to make those kind of gains. But there’s worse places he could’ve gone to train. Volk said after the show that Ruffy was battling some medical issues going into this fight and they didn’t know if he’d be able to make it to the fight. That makes his performance even more impressive. Rough break for Fiziev. He really looked like he might be a standout of the next wave of Lightweights at one point but it’s fizzled out big time. The knee injury in the Gamrot fight obviously didn’t help matters and now he’s at the point where he’s 1-4 in his last five fights. Still relatively young at 32 but I honestly don’t know where he goes from here.

Tallison Teixeira and Tai Tuivasa put on the early front runner for Worst Fight Of The Year for me. Shite. I got about four minutes in before I started losing the will to live and skimming through bits of it. No desire to ever see either of them again but I think @Egg Shen might be onto something with the Bare Knuckle shout for Tai. Surely he’s done in the UFC now? This was his sixth loss on the bounce. And bounce he does. Somehow he’s still in the rankings, again a damning indictment of the state of the Heavyweight division these days. But he has dropped to #15 now. He’s gonna have to go 0-7 to drop out of the rankings. 0-7. Heavyweight is arse. And not the good kind, not the Mackenzie Dern kind. We’re talking shitty, unwashed fat bloke swamp arse on a summer day.

Quillan Salkilld made light work of Jamie Mullarkey. Easy first round submission. Nasty finish as well. Look at the angle of Mullarkey’s head in the neck crank…

Christ. Almost twisted his head off his neck like a bottle lid. Really been enjoying Salkilld over the last year or so since his debut and he’s looking good. In his last two fights alone he’s shown he can end fights brutally on the feet or the ground. Seen a fair bit of positivity about him and people predicting big things for him after this fight but, while I definitely think he’s got potential, I don’t think this was the fight to base much on. Mullarkey really isn’t much good. He was only thrown in because Salkilld’s original opponent (Rongzhu) dropped out and they needed a body. He was clearly out of his depth here. It’ll be interesting to see how they match Salkilld up next. He’s pushing to get a ranked opponent next but I don’t know. Running through Mullarkey doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready for the Top 15. But I wouldn’t hate it either. It’s obvious he needs a step up from the Mullarkey level though. If they do give him a ranked guy, Manuel Torres and Fares Ziam are currently sitting at #14 and #15. Either of them could be a lot of fun.

I don’t even know who Billy Elekana is but I think it’s time for the UFC to pull the plug on the Tafa brothers. Both of them are dogshit. Junior was awful here. And like his bro Justin, they’ve got absolutely nothing as soon as they’re in grappling situations. I actually remember enjoying a couple of Justin’s early UFC fights, he had a couple of fun fat man brawls up at Heavyweight where you can at least get away with a lack of technique to a certain level. But they’ve both been around long enough now that the cat’s out of the bag and everyone knows to just get them to the ground and it’s easy work. Literally the best thing about Junior Tafa here was him walking out to ‘Regulate’ by Warren G. He peaked right there and it was all downhill after.

Cam Rowston dealt with Cody Brundage, as any half decent fighter should. But even then, it was more competitive than you’d expect if he’s gonna go on to be anything of note. He got the finish but I don’t know. Not really convinced.

Malkoun vs Finney was whatever. Not awful, not great. Came and went. Finney’s shite though. Can’t believe there was actually some social media buzz around him before his UFC debut. Did he do something special on DWCS or was that all based on his Scrappy Doo looking build? Because his debut was possibly the worst fight of 2025 and in this one he made a bang average Malkoun who’d been inactive almost two years look like a bit of a force. Fuck Finney off. There’s enough dross on the roster.

Jonathan Micallef vs Oban Elliott was a pretty good fight while it lasted. Disappointing ending for Elliott though. He got off to a strong start and was having success on the feet but once Micallef got him down it was a wrap. You know a fighter is fucked when they start trying to punch while they’re in a rear naked choke rather than fighting the hands. As soon as he threw that desperate blind punch back at Micallef, you knew it was over.

The Road To UFC fights looked decent. Fucked if I can remember anyone’s name but I enjoyed the Bantamweight opener and this knee finish from Keiichiro Nakamura in the Featherweight fight was a beauty…

Quite a comeback as well, he was 0-2 down on all three judges scorecards, then pulled that off deep into the third. Had flashbacks to Joachim Hansen knocking out Caol Uno in similar fashion in K-1 Hero’s way back. Lovely stuff. 


Yeah not the best show. Had its moments like they all do but this felt very much like a Fight Night with a title fight tacked on. Suppose we’ll have to get used to it as well now they’re not on PPV in America anymore. Roll on the Holloway vs Oliveira rematch at 326 (thread coming later).