Alexander Volkanovski matches Jose Aldo record in masterful UFC 325 win over Diego Lopes

Alexander Volkanovski outclassed Diego Lopes to retain his featherweight title in the main event of UFC 325.

‘The Great’ is now tied with 145lb legend Jose Aldo for the most title defences in the division’s history with eight.

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AFP

Alexander The Great

Both men had their moments in the five-round headliner, but Volkanovski displayed technical brilliance to claim a unanimous decision win.

The victory was even more convincing than when Volkanovski first met Lopes at UFC 314, as two judges scored the contest 49-46 and a third ruled it 50-45.

Volkanovski, the only Australia-born champion in UFC history, was defending the featherweight title on home soil for the first time in his illustrious 14-year professional career.

He praised the raucous crowd at Qudos Bank Arena in his post-fight interview before revealing what’s next.

“I wanted to take him out and grab a hold of him, but he was strong — I didn’t want to stand with him for 25 minutes if I’m honest,” Volkanovski said.

The 37-year-old added that the winner of a top-ranked featherweight bout between Lerone Murphy and Movsar is likely to be his next move.

What happened in Volkanovski vs Lopes 2 at UFC 325?

Volkanovski had the Australian crowd roaring before he even entered the Octagon, walking out to the 1980 Men at Work classic ‘Down Under’.

The fight got off to an energetic start as the top two at 145lbs landed big shots in a first round spent mostly on the feet.

Both men continued to size one another up in the opening exchanges, with Lopes defending a Volkanovski takedown before the first bell.

Lopes attempted to close the distance in round two, landing nasty leg kicks and cutting the champion open above the right eye in a nasty exchange.

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Volkanovski was trying to catch the challenger out with his counter strikes, circling his Brazilian opponent on the outside as time ticked on.

By the third round, ‘The Great’ had outlanded Lopes in terms of impactful strikes as the latter showed the steel chin he has displayed throughout his entire MMA career.

After a nip and tuck opening 10 minutes, Lopes boasted a huge smile when the pair emerged for round three.

However, it wasn’t long before his grin was wiped, as Volkanovski caught him with two big right hands in the champion’s best moments of the fight.

Volkanovski told Lopes to bring it on and was finding a home with his jab, but ‘The Great’ then fell to both knees after a solid shot from Lopes.

The Australian picked himself up in the championship rounds after the knockdown, which, he said after the fight, only motivated him to go harder.

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Any slight sign of success from Volkanovski was met by a chorus of cheers as the Australian crowd continued their support in numbers for the home fighter.

Volkanovski was waiting for Lopes to be overaggressive and catch him with his solid right hand that was landing even more at this stage of the fight.

A low blow on Lopes briefly halted round four, but after an apology from the champion and a 37-second timeout, referee Marc Goddard allowed the fight to go on.

Lopes was told to go all out to get the finish in the fifth and final round, with his lack of a killer instinct ultimately proving his downfall in both fights with Volkanovski.

The Brazilian walked into a stiff jab from ‘The Great’ early in round five as the champion shot for another takedown that was quickly reversed.

Volkanovski proved his championship-level grappling as he was comfortable in all areas on the canvas when the fight neared its conclusion.

UFC 325: Full Results

Main card

• Alexander Volkanovski def. Diego Lopes via unanimous decision – Featherweight
• Benoit Saint Denis def. Dan Hooker via second-round KO (punches) – Lightweight
• Mauricio Ruffy def. Rafael Fiziev via second-round KO (punches) – Lightweight
• Tallison Teixeira def. Tai Tuivasa via unanimous decision – Heavyweight
• Quillan Salkilld def. Jamie Mullarkey via first-round submission (neck crank) – Lightweight

Preliminary card

• Billy Elekana def. Junior Tafa via second-round submission (rear-naked choke) – Light heavyweight
• Cam Rowston def. Cody Brundage via second-round TKO (punches) – Middleweight
• Jacob Malkoun def. Torrez Finney via unanimous decision – Middleweight
• Jonathan Micallef def. Oban Elliot via second-round submission (rear-naked choke) – Welterweight

Season 4 Road To UFC Final Matchups

• Kaan Ofli def. Yizha via majority decision – Featherweight
• Dom Mar Fan def. Kim Sang-wook via unanimous decision – Lightweight
• Keiichiro Nakamura def. Sebastian Szalay via third-round KO (knee) – Featherweight
• Lawrence Lui def. Sulangrangbo via split decision – Bantamweight

Lopes tried various submissions in the final minute, but Volkanovski avoided them all, and in the final few seconds, the crowd erupted when the adored fighter pumped his fists in the air, as he knew he’d won the fight.

It ended with Volkanovski laying the smackdown on Lopes for what turned out to be a pretty comfortable day at the office.

No sign of slowing down

The victory over Lopes marks his 15th in the UFC since joining the promotion in 2016.

A former rugby league player before turning to the fight game, Volkanovski went 12 fights unbeaten at the start of his journey in Dana White’s promotion.

He is one of just four fighters, alongside Anderson Silva, Kamaru Usman and Khabib Nurmagomedov, to achieve this feat.

But ‘The Great’ isn’t just up there with the greats in the stats book, having cemented his status yet again as the world’s best featherweight at UFC 325.

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Turning 38 in September, Volkanovski will no doubt continue to face questions of retirement — an idea he has repeatedly played down.

Former UFC featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes, who fought Volkanovski in his final MMA fight, offered his thoughts on the Australian’s retirement conundrum when speaking to talkSPORT.com ahead of UFC 325.

“He’s getting to the point where, as much as you don’t want it to happen, it’s going to happen, but you have to end it sooner or later,” he said.

However, with Volkanovski showing he is still very much at the top of his game against Lopes, the champion definitely has plenty more to give in his title reign.

Before UFC 325, he said he’s not trying to ‘outdo’ Aldo in terms of matching his record, rather ‘trying to do my best and give myself a good legacy.’