{"id":19034,"date":"2022-07-19T10:36:41","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T10:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/alexander-volkanovski-doesnt-mind-ufc-making-interim-featherweight-belt-it-will-just-make-for-a-bigger-fight\/"},"modified":"2022-07-19T10:36:41","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T10:36:41","slug":"alexander-volkanovski-doesnt-mind-ufc-making-interim-featherweight-belt-it-will-just-make-for-a-bigger-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/alexander-volkanovski-doesnt-mind-ufc-making-interim-featherweight-belt-it-will-just-make-for-a-bigger-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski doesn&#8217;t mind UFC making interim featherweight belt: &#8216;It will just make for a bigger fight&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p id=\"7zrsCk\">Alexander Volkanovski isn&#8217;t bothered if the UFC creates an interim featherweight title.<\/p>\n<p id=\"EEwXzF\">This past weekend at UFC Long Island, Yair Rodriguez defeated Brian Ortega by first-round TKO when Ortega injured his shoulder during a grappling exchange.  The strange outcome left the featherweight title picture up in the air, but afterward UFC president Dana White said the promotion may look to do an interim title fight between Rodriguez and Josh Emmett, while they wait for Volkanovski to recover from hand surgery.  And the undisputed featherweight champion is perfectly OK with that.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Bsks6D\">\u201cTo be honest, I don&#8217;t mind the idea while I&#8217;m sitting here [injured],\u201d Volkanovski said Monday on <em>The MMA Hour<\/em>.  \u201cThere&#8217;s no clear \u2014 for that No.  1 container, right?  Let them fight for that No.  1 contender, because I think they both deserve it.  They&#8217;re both in a position where they could get a shot.  Are they screaming out where it needs to be them before everyone?  No, not really.  So let them fight for that No.  1 container.  If it&#8217;s for the interim belt and then we&#8217;ll fight, sweet.  Because like I told you, I&#8217;m not lying when I say I want to be active.  They can go do that, I&#8217;ll go do my thing, and I&#8217;m telling you, a couple months after that, get me back in there, I&#8217;ll do it. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=VMP9823823075\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p id=\"GDHtHh\">\u201cPerfect world for me, lightweight title early next year, and then if they do this interim thing, if that happens, it will just make for a bigger fight anyway, so I don&#8217;t mind,\u201d Volkanovski continued.  \u201cAnd then you&#8217;ve got a clear No.  1 guy.  Everyone&#8217;s going to be screaming their name, whoever wins between Josh Emmett and Rodriguez.  And then they can both say they&#8217;re fighting for a belt, they can go there, and then when we fight it&#8217;s another big fight.  So I don&#8217;t mind the idea, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"gj4rr6\">Volkanovski may not mind the idea, but a certain segment of fans do not support it.  With Volkanovski defending his title just a few weeks ago, some fans are arguing that creating an interim title now would diminish the champion&#8217;s belt, but Volkanovski doesn&#8217;t see it that way.  As MMA Fighting&#8217;s top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, Volkanovski believes creating an interim title will only serve to make his next bout that much bigger.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"hmThSs\">\u201cNo, why does that water down my title?\u201d  Volkanovski said.  \u201cI don&#8217;t think it does at all.  Is anyone going to say that they&#8217;re the real champ?  I don&#8217;t think so.  Everyone&#8217;s going to look at me as the real champ either way.  And if for some reason it does water it down and all of a sudden this guy&#8217;s getting all of this hype, it just makes my next fight even bigger with them.  So either way, I&#8217;m still going to get the championship money, still getting the pay-per-views, so it doesn&#8217;t matter.  If they want to hype up the fight however they want to do it, whatever.  At the end of the day, I know I&#8217;m champ and everyone else does too.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"Q0TA9L\">For Volkanovski, his openness towards an interim title stems from his desire to face true top contenders in his division.  \u201cThe Great\u201d has defended his belt four times, but two of those have come against former champion Max Holloway, in part because Holloway continued to win fights to put himself in position to challenge for the title.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mTJem4\">That&#8217;s what Volkanovski wants from the other featherweight containers right now.<\/p>\n<p id=\"l2NpzO\">\u201cThere&#8217;s so many guys that, yeah, they&#8217;ve had a winning streak and stuff, but let&#8217;s take out some top guys,\u201d Volkanovski said. <\/p>\n<p id=\"J78YHs\">\u201cAgain, I&#8217;m a nice dude.  I understand.  But at the same time, does that mean I&#8217;ve just got to hand out title fights to people that don&#8217;t deserve them?  Where does that get me?  No one&#8217;s going to care about them.  Let them get people talking about them.  Let everyone be screaming their name or saying, &#8216;He&#8217;s the guy!&#8217;  I could be in a room and ask 10 people and they&#8217;re all going to say someone different or say no one.  So let&#8217;s get this No.  1 container, especially while this [injury] is happening.<\/p>\n<p id=\"awk8Ja\">\u201cThen when I&#8217;m asking that same 10 people in that room, we all know who the answer&#8217;s going to be: Whoever wins that fight.  And that makes a lot of sense for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander Volkanovski isn&#8217;t bothered if the UFC creates an interim featherweight title. This past weekend at UFC Long Island, Yair Rodriguez defeated Brian Ortega by first-round TKO when Ortega injured his shoulder during a grappling exchange. The strange outcome left the featherweight title picture up in the air, but afterward UFC president Dana White said &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/alexander-volkanovski-doesnt-mind-ufc-making-interim-featherweight-belt-it-will-just-make-for-a-bigger-fight\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Alexander Volkanovski doesn&#8217;t mind UFC making interim featherweight belt: &#8216;It will just make for a bigger fight&#8217;<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18667,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/ufc-champ-alexander-volkanovski-has-clear-idea-what-he-wants\/","url_meta":{"origin":19034,"position":0},"title":"UFC champ Alexander Volkanovski has clear idea what he wants","date":"July 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is determined to have his next fight be for the lightweight title. Volkanovski (25-1 MMA, 12-0 UFC) has his mind set on getting the opportunity to become a two-division champion, despite having two contenders in his weight class chomping at the bit to be his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/91\/2022\/07\/alexander-volkanovski-max-holloway-ufc-276-44.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2846,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/alexander-volkanovski-beats-max-holloway-by-unanimous-decision-to-retain-featherweight-title-at-ufc-276\/","url_meta":{"origin":19034,"position":1},"title":"Alexander Volkanovski beats Max Holloway by unanimous decision to retain featherweight title at UFC 276","date":"July 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"LAS VEGAS -- It's safe to say, Alexander Volkanovski has buried his rivalry with Max Holloway for good this time.Volkanovski (25-1) defended his featherweight championship for the fourth time Saturday night, defeating Holloway (23-7) via unanimous decision in their highly anticipated trilogy bout. All three judges scored the 145-pound title\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2904,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/alexander-volkanovski-scores-unanimous-decision-victory-with-dominant-performance-vs-max-holloway\/","url_meta":{"origin":19034,"position":2},"title":"Alexander Volkanovski scores unanimous decision victory with dominant performance vs.  Max Holloway","date":"July 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Max Holloway has lapped the rest of the field at featherweight, but Alexander Volkanovski has lapped Holloway.Volkanovski showed the giant chasm that exists atop arguably the UFC's best and deepest division by winning all five rounds against the ex-champion in arguably the best performance of his career\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7971,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/alexander-volkanovski-undergoes-surgery-shares-x-ray\/","url_meta":{"origin":19034,"position":3},"title":"Alexander Volkanovski undergoes surgery, shares X-ray","date":"July 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The featherweight champ walked away with his title after UFC 276, but he was not unscathed. Thursday, Alexander Volkanovski revealed his hypothesis in the immediate post-fight of Saturday's fight vs. Max Holloway was true. On fight night, Volkanovski predicted a broken hand and an X-ray proved him accurate. Volkanovski reported\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sports&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/91\/2022\/07\/alexander-volkanovski-max-holloway-ufc-276-44.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/5_lxgfLL3zB26DLVnYfSkTlYuz4=\/0x0:4620x2419\/fit-in\/1200x630\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/23885169\/1241691360.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19034"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}