Alexander Volkanovski delivered another brilliant performance in the UFC 325 headliner on Saturday, handily defeating Diego Lopes once again.
After a fairly slow opening round, both fighters started to open up in the second. As Lopes put on the pressure, he found success by mixing up his strikes and appeared to cut open Volkanovski below his right eye with a counter. Volk snapped back with an uppercut and appeared to land the more impactful strikes during the round, but it was Lopes who delivered the damage.
As the final minute of the second stanza arrived, Volk jumped the guillotine during a brief grappling exchange. Lopes fought his way out of the hold and ended the round riding ‘The Great’ like a backpack and fishing for a neck crank.
Things really started to pop off in the third, with Volkanovski catching Lopes with a right hand that momentarily buckled the challenger.
Lopes offered up something similar with less than a minute to go in the round, catching Volk coming in and briefly dropping the defending champ. Volk quickly recovered, but the blow appeared to have compromised him as the round came to a close.
With another close round in the fourth, both fighters came out looking to make a statement in the fifth. Lopes was very aggressive with his forward movement, prompting Volk to shoot for a takedown. Lopes defended and looked for another guillotine before giving up on the submission.
With less than three minutes to go in the fight, Lopes scored a takedown and quickly took Volkanovski’s back. Lopes locked in a body triangle, but he couldn’t keep the hold for long. Volk eventually forced Lopes off his back and reversed position, putting Lopes’ back to the fence.
Volk attempted a high-crotch takedown, but found himself defending an arm bar attempt from Lopes. Volk fought his way out and ended up on, riding out the remainder of the time, raining down strikes and putting his stamp on another successful featherweight title defense.
Official Result: Alexander Volkanovski def. Diego Lopes via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45).
