Former UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen believes that Alexander Volkanovski's career will be on the line at UFC 314 this weekend.
Volkanovski (26-4 MMA, 13-3 UFC) could do no wrong between 2013 and 2024. The Australian racked up a 22-fight winning streak, which included winning the UFC featherweight title and subsequently dominating the division.
However, Volkanovski's luck has dipped in recent times. Two failed attempts at dethroning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in 2023 were followed by a knockout loss to Ilia Topuria early in 2024, which saw him surrender his 145-pound title.
As "Volk" prepares to take on Diego Lopes (26-6 MMA, 5-1 UFC) for the vacant featherweight strap in this weekend's main event, Chael Sonnen has been highlighting the pressure that will be on the former champion’s shoulders at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida.
"It is a very tough spot", Sonnen said to Daniel Cormier in the latest episode of their podcast, Good Guy Bad Guy. "I mean, Volkanovski's name ever returning to the discussion of a title fight, (if he loses) that will simply never happen again. Volkanovski's name popping up with the right kind of loss, and I'm talking about if he gets laid out or he gets stopped (which is Lopes's greatest path to victory, by the way) people are going to be calling for retirement. That's going to give him four losses out of his last five. It's going to be a number of years spread over a couple of different weight classes. I don't take any pride in that.
"When I'm trying to look at it and analyze it and think about who's got the pressure, and pressure matters. Daniel, guys like you and I talk about pressure all the time, but we forget to explain to the audience. The reason why that matters is pressure creates a fatigue. And in a sport that's built around exhaustion, you don't want to be the one to get tired first. So if the other guy could have a little bit more pressure, and yes, I think that Volk is not only fighting for a world title, I think that he is fighting for his career."
