On Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida, Alexander Volkanovski will look to pass a major milestone on his way up the list of all-time featherweight greats.
It is a remarkable career arc for a champ who almost seemed to sneak up on the title, to the extent that one can quietly win 20 fights in a row. Even as the stocky ex-rugby player rode into the UFC on a 10-fight win streak, then proceeded to extend it, Volkanovski seemed like an afterthought in the incredibly deep and dynamic featherweight division. Not until his December 2018 knockout of perennial contender Chad Mendes did the general public realize that Volkanovski was closing in on a well-deserved title shot, crashing the three-man party that had loomed over the division since its inception.
Volkanovski’s dark-horse run to becoming the fourth man to win the UFC featherweight belt was made possible in part because for most of his UFC tenure, his three predecessors were battling it out in the spotlight. Jose Aldo, Max Holloway and Conor McGregor dominated the division for the first nine years of its existence, before McGregor took off for the lightweight division and non-MMA distractions, then Aldo made his surprisingly fruitful drop to bantamweight. Volkanovski took the belt from Holloway in December 2019 in a terrific battle, retained it in a razor-close rematch, and then turned aside perennial contender Brian Ortega to notch his second title defense. If he gets past Jung on Saturday, the UFC may need to start looking seriously to some of the division’s young guns, such as Movsar Evloev, Arnold Allen or Bryce Mitchell, to complete the journey from prospect to contender this year.
Here is the history of the UFC men’s featherweight title and the times it was won, lost or defended. Interim title fights are omitted with the exception of Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar 2, since the winner of that fight ended up being promoted to undisputed champ without a unification bout.
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