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Alexander Volkanovski is enjoying life as the new king of the Featherweight division. However, he won't be available for a title defense until the midway point of 2020. Having suffered a hand injury, he'll be out and the Featherweight division is going to have some clarity in the meanwhile.
The three contenders who many believe are in the picture (or nearly there) are Max Holloway, 'The Korean Zombie' Chan Sung Jung, and Zabit Magomedsharipov. Volkanovski revealed in a recent interview that he's not convinced that either of the three men is ready for a title shot.
He's been less convinced at the idea of an immediate rematch with Max Holloway. As for the other two men, he told them that they're atleast a "win away" and requested them to fight it out and earn their shot so he can meet them in the middle of the year.
Watching UFC 246, Volkanovski sarcastically tweeted after the fight between Sodiq Yusuff and Andre Fili that he should call out the loser (Fili), taking a shot at Henry Cejudo for calling out Jose Aldo as his next challenger despite the Brazilian legend coming off a loss to Marlon Moraes.
Volkanovski said:
The Bantamweight Champion Henry Cejudo, however, wasn't planning on sitting silently. He shot back at the Australian, telling him that he's just following the lead of his "teammate" Israel Adesanya - who is set to face Yoel Romero at UFC 248 in his first Middleweight title defense.
If you're not aware, Yoel Romero is coming off a defeat to Paulo Costa and the only reason he's getting a title shot is because Adesanya didn't want to wait for the injured Paulo Costa to recover and also wanted to prove his place by beating the man who many consider as the most dangerous Middleweight on the planet - Yoel Romero.
Ultimately, it's all just small jabs at each other, but there's no denying that Romero as an opponent to Adesanya makes a lot more sense than Aldo as an opponent to Cejudo. In Adesanya's case, the personal request makes sense because there's no other top contender ready to compete. Jared Cannonier is still a win away from earning a title shot and Romero is still a legitimate challenger.
In Cejudo's case, challenging Aldo (a fight that's expected to headline UFC 250 in Brazil), doesn't make sense since Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling are legitimate contenders - with Cory Sandhagen knocking on the door as well.
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