Though nothing is official, rumor has it Alexander Volkanovski will rematch featherweight champion Ilia Topuria sometime this year, and the former pound-for-pound king is getting ready.
Over the weekend, Volkanovski released his first training camp video, going behind the scenes with the former featherweight champion as he gets locked in for a fight he hopes will be announced soon, including showing training footage of Volkanovski working with former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
“We just got here in Thailand — Phuket. … Got in last night,” Volkanovski said. “Obviously, I’m here to do a bit of training camp. Hopefully a fight announcement soon. But we’re in camp. We’ve been in camp for a while, doing a pre-camp camp. So now we’re pretty much in camp.
“Good bodies here for us already. At Bangtao, you’ve always got good bodies, but I’ve got Craig Jones that’s come with us. … We’ve got a heap of good guys to work with over here. I think Aljo is over here as well, so maybe we’ll get some training in. So it’s going to be a good trip.”
Volkanovski and Sterling had overlapping title reigns, with Volkanovski holding the featherweight belt from 2019 to 2024, while Sterling held the bantamweight strap from 2021 to 2023. Now, both Sterling and Volkanovski find themselves chasing the featherweight title, and Sterling relishes the opportunity to train with one of the division’s all-time greats.
“I don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re sparring,” Sterling said. “More for him than for my own personal gain. That’s just kind of the way we do things back home. … just try to give the looks of our opponents to make it as practical as possible, so we can get that fight feel.
“This is actually my first time training with Volk. We’ve seen each other in passing a bunch of different times, at the UFC PI, fighting events and things like that. This has been a cool experience to kind of work with one of the other greatest guys of all-time in the featherweight division. So this is really nice.”
Again, nothing is official but rumor is that the UFC is targeting UFC 314 for the rematch between Volkanovski and Topuria, which takes place on April 12 in Miami.
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29 years is an impressive run.
It’s an true honor for me to celebrate my 29th anniversary of being the “Voice Of The Octagon” as it was 29 years ago on February 16, 1996 that I first stepped into the Octagon at UFC 8 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico to announce the preliminary fights. I am both honored & very thankful… pic.twitter.com/cdnmW0gBzF
— Bruce Buffer (@brucebuffer) February 18, 2025
Farewell.
Joshua Van (12-2) vs. Rei Tsuruya (10-0); UFC 313, March 8.
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Honestly, wish Volk wasn’t so set on getting the featherweight strap back, because him vs. Dustin Poirier or Charles Oliveira or anyone else at 155 could be fun as hell. Instead, he’ll move up after taking another L and the luster will be gone.
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