Volk keeps UFC world title with classy display of MMA skills

UFC world champion Alex Volkanovski has retained his featherweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Diego Lopes at UFC 325 in Sydney on Sunday.

The bout was the main event in a stacked UFC fight night held at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday.

Judges scored the 37-year-old Volkanovski 50-45, 49-46, 49-46 over the five-round fight to give the champ his title defence victory in the featherweight division (145-pound or 65.8kg). It was the second time Volk and the No.2-ranked Lopes have clashed, with the Aussie winning their first match-up, held in 2025.

The UFC title defence caps off a huge 12 months for Illawarra’s favourite son.

He received the keys to Wollongong from the city’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Tania Brown, during a public event at Wollongong Central in May last year, performed a song on-stage with US music star Jelly Roll at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena in November, he’s starring in a new big-screen version of the popular video game Street Fighter due to hit cinemas later this year, and his Freestyle Fighting Gym will soon open a new premises in Shellharbour Road, Port Kembla.

He’s responsible for a surge in interest in mixed martial arts in the Illawarra and to mark Volk’s victory, we’re publishing an interview with the champ from last year.

Illawarra Flame: What's harder: prepping for a world title fight or honing your Academy Award-winning acting talents in a Kia Tasman commercial? 

Volk: To be honest, I would like to say that my career, being an athlete, should come naturally, but the acting comes naturally to me as well. I really enjoy it. So, I don't know. I’m quite comfortable with acting.

You've had younger UFC guys call you old man, and you've played up to it a bit. How many more years in the sport do you have left? Do you have it mapped out? Have you got a five-year plan?

You can’t really have it mapped out. I know that I don't have another 10 years, but I'm still feeling good. 

We definitely got a few more left in me, so we'll see what happens, but that can change, from how I feel in the next one, in the next camp. 

But, as we always say, fighting's easy. I came through the camps and I got through that pretty quickly – and for me to be able to get through that, it shows me I can get through [anything]. 

Does the lead-up and weight-cutting get easier as you get older or is it harder?

The last one was the easiest one for me – I just was that a little bit more disciplined than I usually am. I work hard and I train hard and I'm going to give a hundred percent all the time. 

I could have maybe been a little more disciplined when it come to the diet. Just check out my cooking channel – I love food. 

This time I was a lot more disciplined for the whole 16 weeks and you've seen it in the training and then you obviously seen it [in his April 2025 win over Lopes]. Even me working out the whole five weeks, it went so much better. I was definitely like a whole kilo lighter the whole week [leading up to the weigh-in]. But that process was just so much easier for me.

So, in saying that, the weight cut is getting easier as we get older just because of maybe the hard work I do.

What’s your walk-around weight going to be when you retire, 105kg? 

Maybe I'm back in the props, you know what I mean? [laughs] Front-row weight. [laughs] I used to be 97 kilograms but I don't think I could get there anyway. Well, as you can see – again on my cooking channel – you can see how I love my food. 

I guess I'll always be training and trying to be active, and I've got four daughters keeping me busy.