Alexander Volkanovski favors Ilia Topuria to beat Justin Gaethje in a rematch: 'He tried to rush everything'
Alexander Volkanovski was as surprised as anybody to see Justin Gaethje pull off the big upset win over Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250. Volkanovski was in attendance at the White House and witnessed history when his old rival suffered his first career defeat.
Volkanovski, the reigning two-time UFC featherweight champion, had his first title run ended at the hands of a Topuria knockout in February 2024. It was Topuria’s crowning moment, propelling the Georgian-Spanish talent to superstardom before he eventually moved up to lightweight and captured a second belt at 155 pounds in June 2025, cementing Topuria as one of the UFC’s most seemingly unbeatable forces.
Speaking Wednesday on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” Volkanovski shared what he believes went wrong for his former rival in Sunday’s fourth-round stoppage loss to Gaethje.
“It was a bit of everything,” Volkanovski told Uncrowned. “You have to credit Gaethje for an unreal game plan. He stayed very disciplined. He knew when to fire, he knew when to block, he knew when to put himself in safe positions. He did a great job. So great execution of the game plan was definitely a massive part of it.
“I thought Ilia was very aggressive. I think he tried to rush everything very early, and that’s why he took damage pretty early. Even though he had success in the earlier rounds, that damage was already accumulating. He started getting a little busted up straight away. The jab was landing on Gaethje. Gaethje did a great job of jabbing on the back foot, staying safe enough when Ilia was trying to hit him, or even when he did hit him — even those times where Ilia would bridge a nice, beautiful one-two, [Gaethje] would just roll with it and rattle him a bit, but not enough to put him lights out. Then, just straight after that, put himself in a safe enough position where Ilia just couldn’t land that clean shot to put him to sleep.
“[Gaethje] slowly, slowly wore on him,” Volkanovski continued, “and then just started having more and more success.”
As Volkanovski mentioned, Gaethje’s success in the fight was immediate. He popped off hard jabs with great consistency, though Topuria appeared determined to eat them early and press forward.
Topuria regained steam with a strong second round, though Volkanovski felt like the former champ’s power started to wane after such an aggressive start.
“He definitely could have pulled that off, but if you don’t, it’s a rough fight,” Volkanovski said. “You will run into shots, run into punches, and you will gas. That’s sort of what happened.
“It was a risk that Ilia took. That was a choice he made. It could have paid off for him. You’ve seen him — he did hurt Justin a few times, but Justin just did a great job to survive and be just that little bit safe enough to do work.”
Ultimately, despite the mistakes Topuria made on Sunday, Volkanovski believes a rematch is entirely winnable for “El Matador” after dropping his lightweight crown.
“If he fights the right fight, he will learn a lot from that. Ilia wins the rematch,” Volkanovski said. “That’s no knock on Justin at all. Obviously, Ilia was a favorite for a reason. I just think that Ilia, if he doesn’t rush as much, fights at a little bit better distance, and then does what he usually does, sets up nice traps, he’ll eventually find him. But being so aggressive is sort of what cost him, I believe.”
As for Volkanovski, he continues to sit idle after cornering Mauricio Ruffy for the Brazilian’s impressive knockout win over Michael Chandler at the White House.
The featherweight champion last defended his belt in February, winning a unanimous decision in a rematch against Diego Lopes. While Volkanovski remains hopeful for a September return bout, he’s not expecting it to happen as of right now.
