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Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez both competed at UFC 284, with Volkanovski losing to UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev and Rodriguez defeating Josh Emmett to win the vacant UFC Interim Featherweight Title at the event.
While Volkanovski wants a rematch with Makhachev, UFC President Dana White wants the featherweight champion to fight the interim featherweight champion next.
“When you make a super fight, could you possibly have a better result than we did?” White said at the UFC Fight Night 220 post-fight press conference when asked about Makhachev vs. Volkanovski (transcript via Danny Segura & Ken Hathaway of MMA Junkie). “The entire world is arguing on who won. That’s a superfight and it delivered. The only thing that could possibly be better than that is the guy who’s fighting for the interim title, comes out looking incredible, too. So now you have Yair vs. Volkanovski. We’ll see what happens with Islam and who he ends up fighting next. You have to do Yair. You have to do that fight. He came out looking like an absolute stud that night. And then you have the rematch after they both fight again. It could not have a better result.”
If Volkanovski had won the lightweight title at UFC 284 and vacated the featherweight gold, Rodriguez would’ve become the undisputed featherweight champion.
White would like to have a Volkanovski vs. Makhachev rematch, but only after both defend their respective titles first.
“To me, the fight that makes sense is you make Yair vs. Vokanovski,” White said. “Islam vs. somebody whenever that happens, and then you do the rematch.”
