Alexander Volkanovski vs. Movsar Evloev? Dan Hooker would rather see Yair Rodriguez get the next title shot.
After more than a year away, Alexander Volkanovski is back on top of the UFC Featherweight division. The champion reclaimed his title on Saturday night with a gritty decision win over dangerous contender Diego Lopes in the main event of UFC 314.
Volkanovski went without the title for 14 months, having lost it by knockout to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298. Volkanovski didn’t get the chance to avenge his loss with Topuria relinquishing the title for a future at lightweight.
Now a two-time champion at the age of 36, Volkanovski’s got options for his next title defense with top contenders Movsar Evloev and Yair Rodriguez to choose from.
Dan Hooker rules out ‘boring’ Movsar Evloev for Alexander Volkanovski
One spot above Rodriguez, the #4-ranked Movsar Evloev is riding a 19-fight win streak and is 9-0 in the UFC Featherweight division.
While his resume screams ‘title contender’, all of Evloev’s nine UFC wins have come by decision…
A teammate of Alexander Volkanovski’s, the always-exciting UFC lightweight Dan Hooker is simply not a fan.
“That’s boring,” Hooker said of Evloev potentially fighting for the title on Submission Radio.
“Let’s do Yair again,” Hooker said of Volkanovski’s next challenger.
Yair Rodriguez said post-fight he’d like to fight Volkanovski at Noche UFC 3 in Guadalajara.
Dan Hooker backs former foe Yair Rodriguez for next title shot
Dan Hooker was actually Yair Rodriguez’s second UFC fight after winning ‘The Ultimate Fighter Latin America’. Rodriguez outpointed Hooker to a unanimous decision victory at UFC 192 in 2015.
Almost 100 PPV events later, Rodriguez would fight Hooker’s teammate Volkanovski in a title unification bout at UFC 290 in 2023. Rodriguez had become the interim champion while Volkanovski challenged Islam Makhachev for the lightweight belt.
Volkanovski was too well-rounded for the taekwondo fighter, TKO’ing him with ground and pound in the third round to defend his title.
‘El Pantera’ bounced back from this and a submission loss to Brian Ortega with a dominant win over former two-division Bellator Champion Patricio Pitbull at UFC 314.
Rodriguez put on a striking clinic against Pitbull, picking him apart with kicks. Rodriguez almost knocked out the 42-fight veteran in the final round.
“That was sick,” Hooker said of Rodriguez beating Patricio Pitbull.
“Pitbull has been coming up in the Bellator scene for the longest amount of time. He’s like a pretty much an another Michael Chandler coming through, an exciting guy that puts on firefights.”
Patricio Pitbull is the consensus greatest Bellator fighter of all time with 15 title wins and at 145lbs, he had only lost twice in the last decade.
While Diego Lopes argued one win wasn’t enough for Rodriguez to get the title shot, Dan Hooker sees Rodriguez as a worthy contender to challenge for Volkanovski’s belt.
“Yair was able to just dominate him and smash him. That was an incredible performance and I feel like deserving of a title,” Hooker said.
“I’d like to see Yair step up and and get another shot at Alex. He’s an exciting fighter. We’re not interested in Mosvar.” [laughs]
