Ilia Topuria Stripped Off of Credit for Alexander Volkanovski KO: ‘Didn’t Do Anything Incredible’ Says UFC Veteran

Alexander Volkanovski is making his comeback after a solid 14-month hiatus at UFC 314 on April 12, 2025, in Miami. That’s a long break for a fighter who had three title fights in just a couple of years. However lightweight fighter Dan Hooker believes Volk needed that break to get his bearings together to ensure the Ilia Topuria incident doesn’t repeat itself.

Volk was once on a 12-fight win streak. But then, at UFC 284 in 2023, he stepped in on short notice against lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. He lost the fight. But since it was a closely contested affair, Volk gave himself a good camp before taking on Islam again at UFC 294 later that year.

And that’s where the years of fighting caught up to the Australian. Islam would go on to dominate Volk before finishing him off with a head kick. Eager to prove it a fluke, he would return to defend his featherweight title four months later at UFC 298 against Topuria.

Topuria would famously knock him out, triggering a cascading chain of events that now threatens to establish a new world order at 155 lbs.

However, Hooker believes we give Topuria too much credit for all of it.  The Kiwi asserts that it wasn’t so much Topuria’s greatness as it was Volk’s inability to sit out a few more months after the Islam rematch loss.

“I think he rushed it a bit after the Makhachev fight,” he explained. “Topuria didn’t do anything extraordinary; it just seemed like he fought too soon. I’ve been there myself”, he continued.

“…going from one fight to the next without enough recovery time. When you’re doing five-round fights and tough championship camps, your body really needs time to bounce back”, the lightweight veteran elaborated on the need to rest.

Usually, after suffering a KO loss, fighters take months away from the sport to make sure there is no lasting damage to their brain. It also takes some time for them to get their ‘chin’ back. And while there is no guarantee that any of this would work, there’s also no denying that an ageing body needs time to repair itself.

Volkanovski seems to have realized that this time around. His teammate, Hooker will be there in Miami to cheer in on, in hopes that the Aussie can win back the bantamweight title against Diego Lopes.

“I’m pretty sure Israel’s coming too, and we’ll be there supporting Alexander. He’s had 10 straight title fights and now he’s up against a tough, young opponent in Lopes. It’s going to be one epic fight, and I can’t wait to catch it cage-side”, Hooker said of his friend.

Volkanovski, meanwhile, is looking well ahead of the Lopes fight. Should Topuria win the lightweight title, Volk warns of retaliation.

Volkanovski’s path to Topuria rematch

In an interview with David Adesanya on the FREESTYLEBENDER YouTube channel ahead of UFC 314, Volkanovski outlined his plan.

“The new blood’s here,” he said, referring to upcoming stars like Lopes and the undefeated Movsar Evloev. His game plan is simple: win back the belt against Lopes, then immediately jump into a fight with Movsar—someone he hasn’t faced yet—to prove he can take on the best of the new generation.

He then plans on getting another fight this year, maybe against Patricio Pitbull, and if he is successful in defending his title twice, Volk plans to go kick in Topuria’s door.

“I’m back in them conversations for well obviously Ilia… Imagine he got the belt and then we did the rematch after? You know, that’s a massive rematch or we just do the rematch later on. It just makes the rematch even bigger“, the Aussie said, optimistic about a bright future.