Henry Cejudo highly doubts we get the Alexander Volkanovski of old at UFC 314.
After greater than a 12 months away, Australia’s Volkanovski will look to reclaim what was once his, the UFC Featherweight crown, in a vacant title fight against Diego Lopes next Saturday. Former champ meets top contender within the most important event of UFC 314 from Miami.
Win, lose, or draw, Alexander Volkanovski is happening as certainly one of the best featherweights of all time. Volkanovski is 17-1 at the burden class with multiple title defenses and wins over Jose Aldo and Max Holloway, his only loss being to Ilia Topuria, who relinquished the title earlier this 12 months.
1-3 in his last 4 fights, the grizzled Volkanovski looks to place together one other title run at 36.
Henry Cejudo on Alexander Volkanovski: ‘I don’t think it’s the identical Volk’ …
Every week out from the motion at UFC 314, former two-division UFC Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo isn’t stoked about Volkanovski’s title probabilities.
Cejudo believes his best days are behind him after KO losses to Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria.
“I don’t think it’s the identical Volk,” Cejudo said of Volkanovski in an interview with The Schmo.
“I personally think Diego Lopes is gonna beat him. I actually do.
“But when Volkanovski does get it done, he gets it done. It’s not Ilia Topuria that he’s going to [have to] beat.”
Henry Cejudo predicts Diego Lopes to take out Alexander Volkanovski early at UFC 314
A witness of Volkanovski’s success, the road to the title, the five title defenses— Henry Cejudo still can’t shake the sensation Volkanovski will lose again as he did to Topuria and Makhachev in recent times.
“Volkanovski has done some amazing things at 145lbs, but he’s also passed through three losses,” Cejudo said.
“Against the most effective on this planet, but that’s still three, and two out of three were knockouts.”
Brazil’s Diego Lopes surely packs a punch with 10 KO’s on his record but what’s arguably more impressive is his ground game with 12 submissions.
“I believe his pressure. I believe he brings it early,” Cejudo predicted Lopes to stop Volkanovski.
“Volkanovski will eventually offer you distance. You’ll be able to only run for thus long.
“[Diego’s] really good on bottom, so if Volkanovski does take him to the bottom, this dude’s, his submission game is underrated,” Cejudo added.
“He trains his jiu-jitsu for MMA very, thoroughly.”
Diego Lopes has defeated the likes of Brian Ortega, Dan Ige and Sodiq Yusuff in a 5-1 UFC run that began in 2023.
