Henry Cejudo highly doubts we get the Alexander Volkanovski of old at UFC 314.
After more than a year 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 in the main event of UFC 314 from Miami.
Win, lose, or draw, Alexander Volkanovski is going down as one of the greatest featherweights of all time. Volkanovski is 17-1 at the weight 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 year.
1-3 in his last four fights, the grizzled Volkanovski looks to put together another title run at 36.
A week out from the action at UFC 314, former two-division UFC Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo isn’t stoked about Volkanovski’s title chances.
Cejudo believes his best days are behind him after KO losses to Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria.
“I don’t think it’s the same Volk,” Cejudo said of Volkanovski in an interview with The Schmo.
“I personally think Diego Lopes is gonna beat him. I really do.
“But if 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 feeling Volkanovski will lose again as he did to Topuria and Makhachev in recent years.
“Volkanovski has done some amazing things at 145lbs, but he’s also gone through three losses,” Cejudo said.
“Against the best in the world, 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 think his pressure. I think he brings it early,” Cejudo predicted Lopes to stop Volkanovski.
“Volkanovski will eventually give you distance. You can only run for so long.
“[Diego’s] really good on bottom, so if Volkanovski does take him to the ground, this dude’s, his submission game is underrated,” Cejudo added.
“He trains his jiu-jitsu for MMA very, very well.”
Diego Lopes has defeated the likes of Brian Ortega, Dan Ige and Sodiq Yusuff in a 5-1 UFC run that started in 2023.
