Alexander Volkanovski reclaims featherweight title with win over Diego Lopes at UFC 314

MIAMI – Former champion Alexander Volkanovski regained his once undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight title on April 12 opposite Diego Lopes in the main event of UFC 314 by winning a unanimous decision 48-47, 49-46, 49-46 in Miami.

The fight lived up to expectations, with both men staying composed on their feet despite a near-fight-changing sequence from Lopes (26-7) by dropping Volkanovski (27-4) late in round 2.

Nevertheless, the volume of Volkanovski’s striking made the difference, despite being unable to find a home for the knockout.

“It’s good to be back,” the Australian, 36, said after the win.

Volkanovski held the featherweight title since December 2019 before losing the belt by knockout to Ilia Topuria in February 2024, but after a successful defence against Max Holloway in October, Topuria gave up the title to step up to lightweight, opening a path back to the top for the Australian. 

“Adversity is a privilege. You hear people talk about that all the time, (but) it truly is, this moment is incredible,” said Volkanovski.

“It’s an opportunity – you get adversity, if you build yourself back up it’s only going to make you stronger, even if it doesn’t work out. But a lot of times it does, if you really pursue it.”

As for Lopes, he gave his full respect to the champion but wanted the crowd to know this is not the end of the journey.

“It was an honour to share the Octagon with Alexander Volkanovski,” the Brazilian, 30, said. “I’ll be back.”

The co-main event saw Paddy Pimblett use his potent striking and relentless pace to put away Michael Chandler with a third-round technical knockout to remain unbeaten in the UFC.

Pimblett (23-3) is firmly in title contention, while Chandler (23-10) returns to the drawing board now suffering back-to-back losses at lightweight.

Featherweight Yair Rodriguez earned a unanimous decision against the debuting Patricio Pitbull, taking the scorecards 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.

Primarily a striking battle, Rodriguez caught Pitbull with a right hand in round 3 before swarming the former Bellator star with punches to seal the deal.

Rodriguez (21-6) ended a two-fight skid, while Pitbull (36-8) had not tasted defeat in nearly two years after spending 14 years under the Bellator banner.

Jean Silva won a grudge match against the charismatic Bryce Mitchell in the main card’s second fight.

Silva (16-2) submitted Mitchell with a ninja front choke at 3min 52sec of the second round after dominating Mitchell (17-4) for the first round’s entirety, while nearly finding an opening for a guillotine choke in the round’s final minute.

Silva improved to 5-0 in the UFC. He has quickly emerged as a featherweight contender, snapping Mitchell’s brief bounce-back momentum after securing a TKO win last December.

Light heavyweight Dominick Reyes made short work of Nikita Krylov to open the UFC 314 main card. Reyes landed a counter left hook to get the KO at 2:24 of the opening round.

Reyes (15-4) has won three in a row, while Krylov (30-10) lost for the first time in four bouts.

Meanwhile, in other combat sport action, undefeated Jaron Ennis stopped Eimantas Stanionis with a sixth-round TKO to successfully unify the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Association welterweight belts in a bruising world title fight on April 12.

In an explosive contest in Atlantic City, the American prevailed after subjecting Stanionis to a barrage of savage body shots.

The 30-year-old Stanionis had started brightly but Ennis, 27, responded with a dominant fourth round, wobbling Stanionis with his jab while relentlessly targeting the Lithuanian’s body.

Stanionis was knocked down in the sixth round after being caught with several punishing body shots in quick succession from Ennis.

Although he saw out the round, trainer Marvin Somodio refused to allow him to come out for the seventh.

Ennis, improved to 34-0, with 30 knockouts while Stanionis fell to 15-1 with nine knockouts following the loss. REUTERS, AFP