International Fight Week is starting to take shape with the UFC 290 pay-per-view event.
According to MMA insider Ariel Helwani, a featherweight title unification fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez is set to be added to the card taking place July 8 in Las Vegas.
Helwani notes that nothing has been signed as of yet; however, both sides are on board.
Volkanovski most recently suffered a razor-thin unanimous decision defeat to Islam Makhachev in their lightweight title fight at UFC 284 in February.
With the Aussie attempting to become a two-weight champion, Rodriguez fought Josh Emmett for the interim featherweight title at the same event to determine the next challenger for Volkanovski. Rodriguez ended up winning via submission.
While Volkanovski felt hard done by the defeat to Makhachev and wanted a rematch — as he and many observers in the MMA world felt he had won — it looks like his focus will be back at 145 pounds again as he will look to unify the featherweight titles against Rodriguez.
There is no word on whether Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez will headline UFC 290 as of yet.
Given that it's International Fight Week, fans have come to expect a massive main event and there has been talk of heavyweight champion Jon Jones fighting Stipe Miocic on the card.
As per Helwani, however, there is no talk of Jones vs. Miocic for the event and that as things stand, Volkanovski vs. Rodriguez is the frontrunner to headline the card.
Things could change in the blink of an eye, though, and having Jones vs. Miocic take place during International Fight Week would be massive to say the least.
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