Alexander Volkanovski doesn’t speak Spanish but he’s sure Diego Lopes and Yair Rodriguez had nothing good to say about each other at the UFC 314 press conference.
Tensions rose at Thursday night’s presser in Miami, days away from Alexander Volkanovski’s highly-awaited UFC return against Diego Lopes. The former champion looks to reclaim the vacant featherweight title, left behind his rival Ilia Topuria.
Speaking of rivalries, Lopes took a jab at former interim champion Yair Rodriguez. When asked about a potential fight, Lopes mentioned Rodriguez’s two-fight losing streak wasn’t enough for a title shot.
Rodriguez would then call Lopes a ‘p****’ for jumping his teammate Marco Beltran with both fighters rising to their feet. Lopes submitted Beltran with a kneebar in a Mexican title fight.
Meanwhile, Volkanovski and Michael Chandler were between them as security intervened.
Alexander Volkanovski’s take on Diego Lopes, Yair Rodriguez beef
Volkanovski’s last win actually came over Rodriguez at UFC 290 in his final title defense and booked to fight Lopes, their argument had ‘Alexander The Great’ a little worried.
“At one point, I’m just like, look, don’t fight each other,” Volkanovski said on the UFC 314 weigh-in show.
“If someone gets injured, I might not have an opponent,” Volkanovski continued.
“I was on standby.”
It turns out Volkanovski was on ‘standby’ for a while as Lopes and Rodriguez kept on arguing after the UFC 314 press conference had ended.
Volkanovski has a reputation for being an ‘anytime, anywhere’ kind of fighter, having fought lightweight Islam Makhachev on 11 days’ notice and the dangerous Ilia Topuria four months after.
Wherever the Australian is, he’s ready to fight.
Alexander Volkanovski on second altercation: ‘I might have to dive in there’
The featherweights moved in on each other with security watching closely and Volkanovski, too, the former champion still on stage.
“At the start, I was like, oh, yeah. I could see nothing would happen, but they end up having another chat after,” Volkanovski said.
“They gotta be closer. So I’m like, I better make sure nothing happens because I wanna make sure I got a dance partner tomorrow night.
“They actually got real close. So I was like, oh, I might have to dive in here…”
As this was all happening, Alexander Volkanovski admits he had no idea what they were saying.
“I don’t speak very good Spanish, but I’m sure there’s some swear words,” Volkanovski joked.
