UFC 314: Volkanovski’s Legacy, Pimblett’s Rise, Silva’s Arrival

UFC 314 is in the books, and Alexander Volkanovski is once again the UFC featherweight champion.

Volkanovski delivered a vintage performance against Diego Lopes on Saturday to claim the vacant featherweight title and become the first person older than 35 to win a belt in a weight class below 170 pounds in the UFC.

Also on Saturday, Paddy Pimblett broke through to the ranks of bona fide contender by beating the brakes off of Michael Chandler, Patricio Pitbull had a forgettable UFC debut, and Jean Silva made the most of his big moment. So let’s talk about all of it.

Curses

“Does Volk winning mean the 35+ curse is starting to lose validity, or is Volk just that special of a fighter, or is it just that he had a uniquely poor matchup tonight?”

Probably some combination of the three.

The biggest reason Volkanovski won on Saturday is that he is an exceptional fighter. Volkanovski is one of the 10 greatest fighters to ever lace up the gloves, and Saturday was confirmation of the fact because that wasn’t peak Volkanovski. But all the all-time greats are able to pick up meaningful wins over top opposition even after their primes are over.

But the second biggest reason Volkanovski won on Saturday night is that he is a nightmare matchup for Diego Lopes. I know everyone loves Lopes, and he is undeniably fun, but he is not a technical or tactical savant. Lopes wins fights by being big and dangerous and a bit wild, and that is not a good style to combat one of the greatest tacticians and technicians in MMA history. When Lopes was able to land, he hurt Volkanovski, but he’s a far cry from Ilia Topuria when it comes to footwork and depth of skills, meaning Volkanovski could simply weather the storm, and Lopes quickly ran out of ideas. If they fought 100 times, Lopes only wins a couple of them. He just doesn’t have the requisite skills.

As for the Over 35 Curse, it’s not a curse, it’s just a data point that speaks to a fact about sports and fighting in general: it’s a young man’s game. The older you get, the slower you get, and when your competition isn’t slowing down, that leads to one inevitable conclusion. But for every stat, there’s an outlier, and Volkanovski is now the one here. That’s a testament to him, even if it should be noted that this title has an asterisk because he didn’t beat the champ.

Records

“This performance by Volk was great, but he still looks beatable, which he never did pre Islam Makhachev.

“Do you foresee him having two more defenses to break Aldo’s record with what you saw tonight? Giant fan of his so I hope he does.”

First and foremost, two title defenses do not break Jose Aldo’s record. Aldo had nine consecutive title defenses; Volkanovski has five. He needs four more defenses to get there. I feel like this is a fact people forget (because the UFC actively tries to erase Jose Aldo’s significance for some reason), but he only has 7 UFC title defenses because the UFC didn’t have a featherweight division. But he was the champion of the WEC — which was owned by the same people as the UFC — before then and has nine title defenses. He also is the youngest champion in Zuffa history by this same principle.

Anyway, my guess is that Volkanovski does not get two more title defenses, though it’s not impossible. As mentioned above, I think Lopes was a uniquely great matchup for Volkanovski, and while he fought brilliantly, he still looked lesser than before. If Topuria comes back down, I would pick him comfortably to reclaim the belt, meaning Volkanovski is only champion by the grace of Topuria, and I don’t know how long that can even last.

That being said, Volkanovski does have the benefit of decent matchups ahead of him. It looks like Movsar Evloev will get the next shot at Volkanovski, and while Evloev is a good fighter, he’s not the sort of offensive dynamo that makes Volkanovski’s diminished durability a major concern. And the rest of the division is in flux, so maybe Volk sneaks in a Yair Rodriguez rematch or something. I’d say it’s possible.

GOAT discussion

“Featherweight GOAT.”

Check back later this week as we will do a deep dive on this topic, but the answer is simple: Jose Aldo has nine consecutive title defenses; Volkanovski has just over half of that. You can think Volkanovski is a “better” fighter than Aldo, but he undeniably has not accomplished more because very few fighters have. If he gets two more title defenses, we can start having the conversation.

Diego Lopes

“Although Lopes lost, is his stock higher than it’s ever been?”

No? I mean, his stock is still plenty high, but his stock was higher when half the MMA fanbase thought he was about to be champion. Now we saw Volkanovski take him to school on Saturday, and Lopes isn’t a spring chicken. He’s 30 years old, and there’s a whole new crop of featherweights coming. Lopes can’t rest on his laurels right now.

Paddy Pimblett

“Who would you like to see Paddy fight next? Should Topuria fight a top LW before fighting for the title? (…would a Paddy/Topuria no.1 contender’s fight make sense?)”

Before UFC 314… adamant winner Pimblett vs Chandler fights Ilia Topuria… doubtful now… Paddy’s performance… lightweight belt possibility… UFC wants Topuria vs Pimblett title fight… unless Islam vacates moves up welterweight… fight held up… shame…

If off table… Pimblett vs Charles Oliveira interesting… Michael Chandler not impressive… Pimblett demolished Chandler… believer “The Paddy”… Charles Oliveira didn’t run over Chandler rematch… curious Pimblett vs Oliveira…

#LoVCf0″>Paddy vs Ilia”