UFC featherweight Darrick Minner talks Alexander Volkanovski moving up, plays matchmaker for 145 lbs division (Exclusive)

UFC featherweight Darrick Minner wants to see Alexander Volkanovksi continue to defend his title.

After sweeping Max Holloway 3-0 in their trilogy, Volkanovski expressed his interest in moving up to the lightweight division to challenge either Charles Oliveira or Islam Makhachev.

As far as Minner is concerned, however, he's more interested in seeing Volkanovski continue his reign of dominance in the 145-pound weight class. During an interview with Andrew Whitelaw of Sportskeeda MMA, Minner said:

"Man, I'd like to see Volkanovksi... I mean, if he wants to go defend his title, why not? Why don't you just embrace where you're at in your career and go fight the champ? I mean, it would be fun to watch him, you know. He's been dominant lately, you know, in all his title fights. But yeah, there's so many fun fights out there at the top of the division. So that would be interesting."

Get the latest updates on One Championship Rankings at Sportskeeda and more

Check out our exclusive interview with Darrick Minner:

Meanwhile, Minner will be looking to bounce back from back-to-back losses when comes back to action at UFC Fight Night 214 in November. He'll be facing China's Shayilan Nuerdanbieke.

Darrick Minner predicts Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno 4

Darrick Minner also chimed in on the upcoming fourth bout between Deiveson Figueiredo and his Glory MMA teammate, Brandon Moreno.

'The Assassin Baby' recently secured a rare tetralogy bout against 'Deus da Guerra' by knocking out Kai Kara-France at UFC 277. In doing so, Moreno also captured the interim flyweight title.

Minner will train with Moreno in the lead-up to the much anticipated title fight. He has no doubt that, this time around, his teammate will reclaim the 125-pound belt in a decisive manner:

"Yeah, man. I love that. I mean that fight is fun, but I think... Man, I mean, what Moreno did to Kai, you can't really like [deny that]. He definitely showed that he improved between camps, you know. Being down here with James and stuff. So yeah, of course, man, I think he goes in there and gets the job done by finish this time."

Catch the poster below:

Expand Tweet

ESPN MMA recently reported that Figueiredo vs. Moreno 4 is set for UFC 283 on Jan. 21, 2023. It will reportedly take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

About the author

Writing out of the red corner from the Philippines, Rafael has been entrenched in the world of mixed martial arts for the past five years.

He kickstarted his journalistic career with Rappler.com and had continued covering the world's most violent sport for the newspaper Manila Bulletin. He joined Sportskeeda MMA in 2021 and has garnered over 9 million reads.

The combat journalist is also a television sports reporter for the Manila-based network PTV 4.

In his spare time, Rafael trains in boxing and has sparred with MMA pros Rabin Catalan and John Tirona (he obviously got obliterated).

Know More

Follow One Championship News, Schedule & Results at Sportskeeda.

Edited by Dave