What’s Next for Alexander Volkanovski as Aussie Secures GOAT Status at UFC 333?
Six seconds. That’s all that remained of the second round at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi on October 24th when referee Marc Goddard pulled Alexander Volkanovski off Movsar Evloev and ended the previously unbeaten challenger’s perfect 20-0 record.
The Arabian Gulf has a habit of turning this story. It’s where Volkanovski edged Max Holloway in their UFC 251 rematch in 2020, and it’s where Islam Makhachev’s head kick stopped ‘The Great’ inside a round at UFC 294 three years ago. Now, at 38, he’s finished the division’s unbeaten No. 1 contender there, and perhaps more impressively, he has done it without the backing of the betting gods.
Volkanovski Upsets the Odds and Rolls Back the Years
The Lucky Rebel UFC and MMA odds on fight night listed the champion as a narrow +115 underdog to fend off a challenger six years his junior. And it looked as though the -140 pricing of the challenger was accurate when Evloev found early takedowns. But once he had taken the champion to the mat, the challenger couldn’t keep him there. Back on the feet, Volkanovski’s punches began to land, and late in the second, Evloev was seriously hurt, dropping to the canvas before ground and pound did the rest.
It was Volkanovski’s first finish since July 2023 and a record ninth UFC featherweight title-fight win, moving him past Jose Aldo. “I said if I didn’t take too much damage we’ll probably keep going, so maybe we keep going,” he said.
After Ilia Topuria knocked out Volk in February 2024 and took the featherweight title following two lightweight championship defeats to Islam Makhachev, many thought the Aussie’s time was over. Since losing to El Matador, however, Volkanovski has answered with a second act nobody saw coming, beating Diego Lopes for the vacant belt at UFC 314 and again in an immediate rematch at UFC 325 in Sydney.
The question now is, is there anything left for the greatest featherweight, and indeed one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time, to prove? Make no mistake. The debate about his place in featherweight history is settled; the only question now is how he finishes his storied career. These are the options.
Justin Gaethje
A third crack at becoming champ-champ, this time against newly minted lightweight king Justin Gaethje, is the fight that Volkanovski wants. In the build-up to the victory over Evloev, Volkanovski pitched a meeting with the lightweight champion as a send-off for both men. He doubled down during fight week, telling The Mac Life, “I’m not the one to just call for title fights.”
After Evloev, he went further. “That’s something I would retire for. If they ever wanted to give me that opportunity, I would retire, win or lose,” he told the post-fight press conference.
Gaethje has his own reasons to listen. He won the interim title against Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 in January. Then he became undisputed champion at the White House in June with a stunning upset win over the previously unbeaten Topuria, forcing El Matador to quit on his stool at the end of the fourth round to unify the lightweight titles. Since then, he’s ruled out an immediate rematch with Topuria, named Arman Tsarukyan as clearly “the next in line” before going on to say that he has “nothing left to prove.”
Dana White sounded open to it on Saturday: “There’s not much we’re going to say no to with him.” But Tsarukyan, who said he’d spoken to White after his first-round win at UFC 331 in September, expects to be next. Still, a clash between Volkanovski and Gaethje for all the marbles, with both men, aged 38 and 37 respectively, retiring afterward could appeal, especially with Tsarukyan waiting in the wings to compete for the vacant title shortly thereafter.
Lerone Murphy
Fourteen months ago, Murphy looked like the man. He carried a 17-0-1 record and a nine-fight UFC winning streak into UFC 319, with Edson Barboza, Dan Ige, and Josh Emmett among the victims. There, a spinning back elbow flattened Aaron Pico in the first round. UFC.com ranked it the best knockout of 2025, and Volkanovski called Murphy “a bit of a no-brainer” as his next challenger. The UFC booked the Lopes rematch instead.
Then came London. Murphy had the better of the early rounds against Evloev in March and benefited from a fourth-round point deduction for a groin kick, yet the judges returned 48-46, 48-46 and 47-47 for the Russian. The wider MMA public was split, with some scoring it as a draw, some for Murphy, and some agreeing with the official verdict.
He’s still ranked No. 3, but he hasn’t fought since. He revealed afterwards that he’d torn a hip flexor late in the bout, and he has no booking. Volkanovski left him off his fight-week list of contenders, and bouts with Lopes or Yair Rodriguez have been floated instead.
Is it fair that the man many thought beat Evloev sits idle? Probably not. But Murphy, as things stand, needs a win before he’s next.
Aljamain Sterling
Few contenders bring a résumé like Aljamain Sterling. Funk Master won the bantamweight title from Petr Yan by disqualification at UFC 259, beat Yan in the rematch, and defended against all-time greats TJ Dillashaw and Henry Cejudo before losing to Sean O’Malley in August 2023. Since moving up to 145, he’s 3-1: a win over Calvin Kattar at UFC 300, a decision loss to Evloev at UFC 310, a 50-45 sweep of Brian Ortega at a catchweight in Shanghai, and, in April, a 49-45 shutout of Youssef Zalal that snapped the Moroccan’s eight-fight winning streak.
Volkanovski named him at fight-week media day. “So, you’ve got your Jean Silvas, you’ve got your Aljamain Sterlings,” he said, adding that a big win over Kevin Vallejos could do it. That fight is the co-main event of UFC Qatar on November 21.
If Sterling wins and Gaethje passes, an early-2027 title shot feels natural. And considering that Funk Master is already considered arguably the greatest bantamweight champion of all time, a potential featherweight title clash with Volkanovski could provide that legacy value the Aussie is craving before he sails off into the sunset.
