Going into Alexander Volkanovski's title unification fight with Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290, the debate over who the featherweight GOAT was reignited once again. The choices ultimately come down to Volkanovski, Jose Aldo and Max Holloway, and there is certainly a case to be made for all of them. However, Alexander Volkanovski's claim as the featherweight GOAT is the strongest and that was further cemented following his third-round TKO win over Rodriguez last night in Las Vegas.
Volkanovski earned the fifth defense of his featherweight title by becoming just the second fighter to finish Rodriguez in the UFC. He also did it on the feet which most would have considered ill-advised considering the dynamic striking — and kicking in particular — of Rodriguez (even though Volkanovski did take him to the ground in the first two rounds). However, such is the all-round ability of Volkanovski that he can strike with the best, wrestle with the best and grapple with the best. Even more impressively, he notably beat him while having a problem with his arm that he later revealed required surgery. And although the reactionary nature of sports saw more and more fans start to declare Volkanovski as the best featherweight of all time following the win, he already had a strong claim well before UFC 290.
Let's consider the first GOAT candidate in UFC Hall of Famer Aldo. He was the first-ever featherweight champion in the UFC and the second-youngest champion in ZUFFA history. He has a record nine consecutive featherweight title defenses in a title reign that lasted over 2,500 days. Until his defeat to Conor McGregor, the Brazilian was undefeated for just over 10 years. He has an impressive resume with wins over the likes of Urijah Faber, Ricardo Lamas, The Korean Zombie, Frankie Edgar (x2) and Chad Mendes (x2). Finally, his overall longevity in the sport is is extremely impressive as he was defeating top contenders well past his prime.
Then you have Holloway who amassed an impressive 14-fight winning streak at featherweight over the course of five years. During that streak, he not only defeated Aldo to become the champion and defended the title against him as well, but he finished him on both occasions as well — it doesn't get more definitive than that. If Aldo was the first to be considered the featherweight GOAT, then Holloway certainly had a strong claim considering he defeated and stopped him twice. That's not even mentioning the absurd stats that Holloway put out during his featherweight run and his already-impressive resume that also saw him defeat the likes of Edgar, Lamas, Anthony Pettis, Charles Oliveira, Cub Swanson and Brian Ortega to name a few. With each win, it was becoming more and more accepted from the MMA community to hold “Blessed” as the greatest featherweight of all time.
But then came along Alexander Volkanovski. After amassing a seven-fight winning streak upon entering the UFC, Volkanovski got his first title shot against Holloway at UFC 245 back in Dec. 2019. Although the Aussie had better odds than any other Holloway challengers at the time, he was still a slight underdog with many expecting the latter to edge the contest. Instead, Volkanovski disrupted Holloway's rhythm, employed a brilliant game plan with his striking and ultimately, got the unanimous decision victory to become the new 145-pound king.
Although the rematch was extremely close and controversial, Volkanovski managed to emerge victorious again — this time with a split decision win. It wasn't a robbery by any means, but given the contentious nature of the second win, many observers didn't give Volkanovski the true respect he deserved. His subsequent wins over Ortega and The Korean Zombie were extremely impressive, but it was still hard for many to call him the 145-pound GOAT.
That was until UFC 276 in July last year where Volkanovski not only defeated Holloway by unanimous decision — he dominated, bloodied and trash talked him along the way, making it look easy. It wasn't a case of Holloway being past his prime either (he's notably three years younger than the Wollongong native) — after all, he has still outclassed and defeated other top contenders following his defeats to Volkanovski. The simple fact is, Volkanovski is just that good. Now, Volkanovski got the true respect he was waiting for as well as being regarded as the featherweight GOAT.
Let's also not forget that Volkanovski defeated the likes of Mendes and Aldo (albeit past his prime) prior to his fights with Holloway. So unlike GOAT conversations in other sports and even in MMA, when it comes to the featherweight GOAT, we have a candidate in Volkanovski who has not only beaten one other candidate in Aldo, but beaten another one in Holloway with two wins over Aldo not once, not twice, but three times. And unlike those two, Volkanovski is still yet to suffer a defeat at 145 pounds and doesn't look like he will anytime soon.
Aldo still has the longer title reign (Volkanovski's stands at over 1,300 days) and more defenses as of now, but what Volkanovski — regarded by many as the pound-for-pound best fighter in the UFC — has achieved in today's generation of MMA along with his superior skillset simply puts him on another level. Things could very well change in the future, but for now, Alexander Volkanovski is clearly the greatest featherweight of all time.