Outside Source
News broke on Thursday from Uncrowned that UFC 325 will be taking place on Jan. 31. The event will be held at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, one week after UFC 324. As part of the new broadcast deal with Paramount, these events will no longer be carried on pay-per-view, and instead can be seen on Paramount+ and potentially the CBS network. The promotion has since confirmed this championship rematch.
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The headliner of this show is a featherweight championship rematch pitting Alexander Volkanovski (27-4) against Diego Lopes (27-7) again. The two first met in April atop UFC 314, with Volkanovski winning a decision to claim the vacant strap to become champion again in a division he ruled over for a few years. Since their collision, Lopes has gone on to win once, while “The Great” has not competed.
Play It Again, Sam
Once considered one of the pound-for-pound top fighters in the world, Volkanovski has made up some ground by winning back his former belt at 145 pounds. On the heels of his third win against Max Holloway in 2022, “The Great” decided to move up to lightweight to attempt to become a simultaneous two-division champ. Islam Makhachev staved him off twice, so he abandoned his effort and defended the featherweight strap against Yair Rodriguez sandwiched between the Makhachev encounters. While Ilia Topuria would wrest that throne from him with one punch in February 2024, when Topuria left the division, it opened up his ability to win it back by beating Lopes.
This will be Lopes’ second bite at the apple held by the Aussie, with the Lobo Gym product earning this shot with a stunning performance against Jean Silva atop the September Noche UFC event in Texas. The Brazilian wiped out his countryman after a thriller with a spinning back elbow and follow-up punches to earn him double post-fight bonus honors.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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