As one of Mixed Martial Arts’ crowd favourites, the popular Alexander Volkanovski will put his UFC featherweight belt on the line when he takes on Diego Lopes for the second time at UFC325 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Sunday.
The main card is set to commence at 4am CAT.
Volkanovski will have the home crowd in his favour this weekend as he hopes to topple Lopes once more after he won the vacant Featherweight title against the Brazilian at UFC314 via unanimous decision across five rounds on 12 April last year.
The UFC veteran suffered knockout defeats against Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria prior to his last fight with Lopes, as he once again finds himself among the promotion’s top attractions.
Speaking ahead of the fight, Volk expressed that facing Lopes won't do much for his legacy but at the same time, promised to deliver an exciting event.
"We know he's going to bring it, we know it's an exciting fight; a lot of people might have wanted to see me against [Movsar] Evloev, undefeated guy, maybe for legacy reasons and people that are in the know," Volkanovski said.
"But then you've got everyone that still just wants to watch me fight, they're like 'oh this is going to be exciting, the last one was exciting, now we get to have this in Sydney'.
“So I think they're all in for a treat, but yeah, obviously legacy-wise, having a rematch against someone I just beat, is it going to be doing so much for my legacy? Probably not."
Also, the co-main event features a bout between Dan Hooker and Benoit Saint Denis, with the former hoping to bounce back from his submission defeat against Arman Tsarukyan in November last year.
Saint Denis, on the other hand, is on a three-fight winning streak after he finished Kyle Prepolec, Mauricio Ruffy and Beneil Dariush in 2025.
UFC325 Main Card:
Alexander Volkanovski v Diego Lopes (Featherweight)
Dan Hooker v Benoit Saint-Denis (Lightweight)
Rafael Fiziev v Mauricio Ruffy (Lightweight)
Tai Tuivasa v Tallison Teixeira (Heavyweight)
Quillan Salkilld v Jamie Mullarkey (Lightweight)