Alexander Volkanovski’s first defense of his second championship reign could be set.
The UFC 319 co-main event had the makings of a potential No. 1 contender fight and Lerone Murphy stated his case in no uncertain terms with an unreal first-round spinning back elbow knockout
of Aaron Pico. Murphy is undefeated in 17 pro bouts, including a 9-0-1 mark in the UFC, and his finish of Pico could propel him into a long-awaited title shot.Volkanovski supported Murphy’s callout on social media, and Murphy responded
to that gesture at Saturday’s post-fight press conference, saying, “December will be great to share the octagon with Volkanovski, one of the featherweight GOATs.”
As of now, the champ agrees.
“I think it’s a bit of a no-brainer,” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “December’s looking good. There were earlier dates that probably wouldn’t work for guys that are fighting right now anyway, so the later dates were always looking better for me anyway and for my future potential opponents. So December’s looking like it could be there.”
Murphy isn’t the only featherweight contender on a lengthy win streak. The undefeated Movsar Evloev was actually expected to fight Pico, but that bout failed to materialize after Evloev withdrew allowing Murphy to step in.
Volkanovski actually thought he would defend against Evlov after beating Diego Lopes for a vacant belt at UFC 314, but he expects the matchmakers to move on after Murphy’s impressive win.
“A lot of people are going to be, like, ‘Movsar should be there,’” Volkanovski said. “I tried. I tried to make that happen. I thought he deserves it, he did deserve it, he had this fight and then I’m, like, alright, he’s going to have to do this fight and then he definitely gets it and then he pulled out and you know what the UFC’s like with things like that. Maybe they tried to push it back because they pushed the date further and he still didn’t do it. Maybe it was a serious injury, I’m not sure, I don’t know what it is. Maybe that’s why he can’t fight, I don’t know, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be Movsar.
“I’ve tried with all of them, but it looks like it’s Lerone Murphy, it makes a lot of sense. So let’s do Lerone Murphy, December, sounds great.”
Volkanovski is yet to hear any official word on who he’s fighting, though he made sure to pay close attention to Saturday’s co-main event. Even though Pico was making his UFC debut, a memorable finish by the 28-year-old might have been enough to set up a date with Volkanovski, especially considering Pico’s reputation as an all-action fighter during his time with Bellator.
For Volkanovski, building up his next fight is strictly a numbers game.
“I had my eye on this one,” Volkanovski said. “Did I know that the winner of this is going to be fighting for the title? No, I don’t. I still don’t have no clear answers. But at least you had Pico saying he thinks he’s going to knock me out and outwrestle me and obviously I end up saying something back. I don’t think he was being disrespectful for that and I wasn’t being disrespectful. I’m literally just trying to put the feelers out there. Who knows who I’ve got next?
“It could be Lerone Murphy. It could have been Pico. It could have been Silva if he beats Diego. Movsar, you never know, I don’t know. Or even Yair, I’m trying to put the feelers out for whoever it is so it makes sense. If for some reason it can’t be these guys, it ends up being this person, at least it’s got a little bit of legs behind it, at least it’s still, ‘Alright, it makes a little bit of sense.’ I’m going to put the feelers out with everyone. So the winner of this, that was never promised to me or that was never something that was going to happen, but I’m like, you never know.”
