Volkanovski calls for Oliveira, Poirier at lightweight: ‘Let’s have some fun’

Alexander Volkanovski is starting to get restless on the sidelines as he patiently waits for a return fight near the end of 2024.

The timeline is one of his own making, or at least one he begrudgingly agreed to after getting knocked out twice in four months. On the plus side, he says he’s not struggling with the same mental issues he fell into the last time he had too much free time on his hands. But he’s so eager to get back into the cage that he was seriously pitching a UFC 303 fight to matchmakers after Conor McGregor fell out.

“I was pestering them,” Volkanovski admitted in a new interview with David Adesanya. “I’ll be honest: they didn’t call me. Someone said they’re probably doing the right thing. They knew that I wanted a break, a lot of people are like ‘He’s having a break.’ So I think out of respect, they let me not worry about it because they probably knew I would say yes.”

“So because they didn’t call me and I didn’t get any phone calls or messages, I decided to message them. I actually messaged them a few times. I’m like, ‘Hey, if you need someone, we know a guy.’ And they’re like, ‘You’re a savage man.’ I go, ‘Okay. No. I’m serious.’ He goes, ‘We know you are. I will let you know if we need you,’ but I think they were always gonna do their own thing. I’ll message ‘em the next day and be like, ‘Hey, just a reminder…’”

Barring another crazy last-minute replacement fight, Volkanovski is looking for fun fights at lightweight until he can get another crack at his former featherweight title.

“Obviously, the rematch for the belt, right? That’s big,” he said. “And then, to be honest, exciting big fights. I like that. I’m still that competitor where this is my division, I’m getting it back. I want that win back, things like that. And it’s gonna be there. But then at lightweight, let’s have some fun while we’re waiting. Because they’re probably gonna do Max and Ilia in September.”

“Give me an exciting fight. I want an exciting fighter like Charles Oliveira,” Volkanovski declared. “I did call out [Dustin] Poirier after that when I thought that. He’s a great dude, we get along and I think he’s a great man, and he’s obviously a big fun fight.”

Oliveira is hoping to get back to action in August or September, and Poirier is talking about one ‘last dance’ whenever his knee heals up. If neither pans out, Alex is open to other options … so long as they’re not at 145 pounds.

“There’s a lot of there’s exciting fight that I would love to do while I’m waiting,” he said. Whatever excites me. The belt excites me. Ilia, obviously, [the] rematch excites me. So that’s the main things in featherweight. Like, I wouldn’t just fight anyone in featherweight, because my next fight’s for the title, and that’s that.”