Alex Volkanovski’s pitch to fight Justin Gaethje ‘one of the dumbest ideas’ in UFC history

Reigning UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski wants to move up to lightweight, fight Justin Gaethje for the 155-pound title, then retire from combat sports.

And it sounds like “The Great” has the support of UFC CEO Dana White.

But former UFC title contender and current MMA analyst Chael Sonnen is not impressed by the idea and suggests Volkanovski should surrender his 145-pound strap and enter the lightweight mix.

Without a guaranteed title shot.

“Volkanovski just laid out one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I do challenge the notion that, ‘I will go to 155 to test myself to fight Gaethje.’ That’s a cop out. That’s a cop out by anybody. I don’t mean that it’s conscious, but that it’s subconscious. If you want to go to 155 and test yourself, drop the strap and go into the division; exactly what Ilia Topuria did. Now, I understand that history is going to tell you that Ilia ended up with a title shot. He was not guaranteed a title shot when he dropped the strap and moved into the division. You want to test yourself, do what Max Holloway did: be a ‘45-pounder that enters ‘55 with no guarantee. Which means if I lose, I don’t get to say I lost to the best guy.”

Volkanovski is 0-2 in lightweight title fights, falling twice to then-champion Islam Makhachev.

“When Volk went up [to fight Makhachev], he did not vacate; he did not burn his boats. If he was to burn his boats, he would have dropped the ‘45-pound belt,” Sonnen continued. “There’s nothing stopping — there’s no anchor tied to your ass to do that. You can do that now. Right now. Make a public statement, that’s all you’ve got to do to drop a belt. Tell the public you’re dropping the belt. It’s no different than we put a belt on a guy at a press conference. This really is how it works. You want to test yourself? I like the idea. You want Gaethje? It’s not the same thing. You want a shot at a world title that you’ve already had twice. It’s not the same thing. You want to test yourself, do what Ilia did: drop the belt, go into the division.”

This lightweight contender has already agreed to serve as Volkanovski’s first opponent.

Volkanovski (29-4) turned 38 just a few weeks back and has already shot down the idea of defending the 145-pound strap against UFC fan favorite Jean Silva. But any shot of challenging Gaethje all depends on whether or not “The Highlight” retires from MMA.

Still lots of moving parts to this 155-pound puzzle.

Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.