Volkanovski outclasses Lopes to retain UFC title

SYDNEY, Australia — Alexander Volkanovski remains the king of the featherweight division after once again proving too strong for Brazilian Diego Lopes in their rematch at UFC 325 in Sydney.

Volkanovski, 37, earned his sixth win as featherweight champion, and eighth in a title fight overall, with a commanding performance that was almost a carbon copy of his win in Miami last year.

The Australian triumphed 49-46, 49-46 and 50-45 for a unanimous decision win, improving on his 49-46, 49-46, 48-47 victory last April.

Lopes, 31, was unable to regularly penetrate Volkanovski’s defense, with the Australian able to keep his distance and sting the Brazilian, six years his junior, with superior counter strikes.

“It ain’t getting any easier, I’ll can tell you that,” Volkanovski said in his postfight Octagon interview. “Camp was a lot of things going on in there and we pushed through.

“The beautiful thing is — I always say — adversity is a privilege. I love it. Sometimes things go wrong, I’m just like, ‘Let’s go.’ That makes it more of a challenge and fires me up even more.

“And then you’ve got a young, hungry guy like that over there? Man, I wanted to take him out. I wanted to grab a hold of him and put him down, but he was strong. I didn’t want to stand for 25 minutes, I’ll be honest, but we got the job done, so it’s all good.”

While Lopes was able to inflict some punishment on Volkanovski’s body, the champion was doing his damage up top while also finding the mark with his calf kicks. Both fighters enjoyed some takedown success, but it was Volkanovski who was able to make that advantage count with an extra 45 seconds of fight control, according to ESPN Research.

Knowing he had the fight won, Volkanovski saluted the adoring home crowd with 30 seconds left in the final round, before icing his performance with some late ground-and-pound. Lopes then held the champion’s arm aloft moments later, knowing he had again come up short against the Australian.

It might not have been the “bulldozing performance” Volkanovski had promised prefight, but the 37-year-old again showed that he remains a cut above the rest of the featherweight division.

In the co-main event, Benoît Saint Denis made it four straight wins at lightweight, earning a TKO victory over Dan Hooker. The Frenchman took control of the fight in the first round, using his superior grappling to shut out the dangerous Kiwi, and continued that dominance into Round 2, securing the win with some final ground-and-pound 15 seconds from the bell.