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This past weekend at UFC 276, Alexander Volkanovski produced arguably his best performance to date in his successful featherweight title defense against Max Holloway.
Alexander Volkanovski is currently ranked as the No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC, but should the reigning featherweight champion actually be ranked at the top of this list?
Sure, welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman, who is ranked above ‘Alexander the Great’, is a tremendous fighter in his own right. However, there’s definitely an argument for putting Volkanovski above him.
Here are five reasons why Alexander Volkanovski should be ranked as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC.
#5. Alexander Volkanovski has no clear weaknesses
It goes without saying that whichever fighter occupies the top spot in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings should be a truly incredible combatant. For the most part, this probably ought to mean that they have little to no weaknesses.
Kamaru Usman, who is currently ranked as the pound-for-pound No.1, is definitely a tremendous fighter, but is it fair to suggest that he’s got no real weaknesses? Not quite.
Sure, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is a tremendous grappler and it’s unlikely we’ll ever see him outwrestled inside the octagon. However, while he does possess brutal knockout power and an ever-improving striking game, could a world-class kickboxer perhaps outdo him on the feet?
Given that he was knocked down by Gilbert Burns in their clash and also had two close bouts with Colby Covington despite winning, it’s probably fair to say that it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see him outstruck.
Alexander Volkanovski, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to have any weaknesses at all. Not only has he shown the ability to outstrike the best kickboxers in his division in the form of Jose Aldo and Max Holloway, but he’s also only been taken down a handful of times in his UFC career.
More to the point, he’s also shown that his grappling defense is second to none, as he was able to both survive and thrive on the mat with Brian Ortega, arguably the division’s most dangerous submission threat.
Essentially, ‘Alexander the Great’ appears to be about as unbeatable as a UFC fighter gets right now, and so he deserves to be considered the pound-for-pound No.1.
#4. Alexander Volkanovski is riding a ridiculously-long winning streak
Right now, the three fighters who sit at the top of the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings, Kamaru Usman, Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya, are all unbeaten in their natural weight classes. Adesanya is the only one of the three to have suffered a defeat in the octagon, but that loss came at 205lbs rather than his usual 185lbs.
However, while Usman is on a highly impressive unbeaten run, it’s definitely arguable that Volkanovski’s winning streak is actually more impressive than that of ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’.
Usman has won a total of 19 fights in a row dating back to December 14, 2013, and remarkably, a total of 15 of them have come in the UFC, including his welterweight title win over Tyron Woodley and subsequent five title defenses.
In a truly bizarre coincidence, Volkanovski’s winning run dates back to the exact same date as Usman’s, but in the near-decade that has followed, he’s won a total of 22 bouts, pushing him slightly ahead of the welterweight kingpin in the numbers game.
Sure, ‘Alexander the Great’ has not won as many UFC bouts as Usman – a total of 12 – but it’s definitely arguable that his victories have come against stiffer competition.
Essentially, both men have similarly long winning runs, but Volkanovski’s superior numbers should give him a very slight edge over Usman.
#3. Alexander Volkanovski is exciting to watch as well as being dominant
The big thing that marks out Alexander Volkanovski when it comes to comparing him to the other contenders for the UFC’s pound-for-pound No.1, Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya, is the fact that he’s never been accused of putting on dull fights in the octagon.
While Adesanya rocketed to huge popularity thanks to his knockouts over the likes of Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa, recently he’s come under fire for an apparent safety-first approach in his clashes with Jared Cannonier and Marvin Vettori.
Usman, meanwhile, has pulled off some huge knockouts, but his earlier bouts in the octagon were not so great, and he received plenty of criticism for his first win over Jorge Masvidal in 2021 thanks to the clinch-heavy style he deployed.
Volkanovski, on the other hand, has produced some of the most exciting featherweight title bouts in UFC history against Max Holloway and Brian Ortega. More to the point, while he’s a highly-technical fighter who rarely eats unnecessary shots, he’s always aggressive and could never be accused of a defensive approach.
Obviously being an exciting fighter doesn’t necessarily make someone great. Nobody would claim Niko Price or Drew Dober are currently pound-for-pound greats even if they’re incredibly fun to watch, after all. But when it comes down to the narrow margins being discussed here, Volkanovski’s style should mean he’s ranked above Usman and Adesanya.
#2. Alexander Volkanovski has fought in a higher weight class before
Part of the reason why it’s so hard to split Kamaru Usman and Alexander Volkanovski when it comes to ranking the top pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC is that neither man has ever suffered a defeat in the octagon in their own weight class.
However, while Usman has fought his entire MMA career as a 170lber, ‘Alexander the Great’ has competed in various weight classes, including during his tenure with the UFC.
Remarkably, the Australian began his MMA career as a welterweight, only dropping to 155lbs for his sixth fight. From there, Volkanovski bounced around between 155lbs and 145lbs before settling as a featherweight in 2015.
However, when he initially arrived in the UFC in 2016, he came in as a lightweight, defeating Yusuke Kasuya in his octagon debut before dropping back to 145lbs for his bout with Mizuto Hirota.
Nobody is about to claim that Volkanovski’s win over a largely unheralded foe like Kasuya could be compared to the forays into a higher weight division once made by former pound-for-pound great Anderson Silva, who defeated a former light heavyweight champion in Forrest Griffin.
However, the fact that he appears to be capable of competing in multiple weight classes suggests that the Australian is the very definition of a pound-for-pound great, and deserves to sit atop the UFC’s rankings.
#1. Alexander Volkanovski has beaten the greatest featherweights of all time
While Kamaru Usman has undoubtedly defeated some excellent welterweights during his UFC tenure, including former champion Tyron Woodley, Colby Covington, Demian Maia and Jorge Masvidal, he does not – and likely will not – ever hold victories over the consensus GOATs of his weight class, Matt Hughes and Georges St-Pierre.
Of course, this is through no fault of Usman’s. Both Hughes and St-Pierre were retired before ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ ascended to the top of the UFC. However, the same cannot be said for Alexander Volkanovski.
While he hasn’t quite cleaned out the featherweight division yet, with prospective fights against the likes of Josh Emmett, Yair Rodriguez, and Arnold Allen still possible, ‘Alexander the Great’ has undoubtedly beaten the best fighters in the history of his weight class.
The Australian has overcome the best two fighters to never hold the UFC featherweight title in the form of Chad Mendes and Brian Ortega. He’s also got three wins over Max Holloway, as well as a dominant win over Jose Aldo.
Essentially, those four fighters could easily be argued as the best four to ever compete at 145lbs outside of Volkanovski himself, with ‘Alexander the Great’ now being widely considered the GOAT of featherweights.
Usman is undoubtedly a great fighter, but he still hasn’t surpassed St-Pierre’s legacy at welterweight, whereas Volkanovski’s legacy at featherweight is now basically untouchable. In that sense, there’s no doubt that he should be considered the UFC’s pound-for-pound No.1.
