Dana White open to Volkanovski moving up to face lightweight champ Gaethje

UFC CEO Dana White said on Friday, October 23, that the UFC is open to Alexander Volkanovski moving up a division. The featherweight champion wants to end his career against lightweight champion Justin Gaethje. On Saturday, Volkanovski met White's condition by stopping Movsar Evloev in the second round at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi.

Nothing is booked or announced. Gaethje has not responded in public.

What White said

In a Main Event interview posted on Friday, reported by Heavy, White said:

"When a guy gets to his level, there isn't too many things we'd say 'no' to him about."

On a livestream with Nina Drama, he tied it to the UFC 333 result (SB Nation, MMA Sucka):

"If he wins again tomorrow, this guy's accomplished so much, it's hard to say no to a guy like that."

He gave no date. Heavy says he is open to booking it if both fighters want it.

Volkanovski's pitch

Volkanovski first floated the idea on the "Who Da Fook Are These Guys?" podcast, ESPN reported on October 15. He called it a "send-off": a lightweight title fight, after which both men would retire.

At UFC 333 media day on Wednesday, October 21, he argued that two retirements would vacate both belts, so neither division gets held up (Cageside Press). "I don't have any plans of retiring other than if we were to do something like this," he told The Mac Life, per SB Nation.

On Saturday, Volkanovski (now 29-4) finished Evloev with punches at 4:54 of round 2, handing him his first loss after a 20-0 start (UFC 333 results).

After the fight, he said he would probably keep fighting if he wasn't taking much damage. "I'm choosing to do it [fighting]. I don't have to," he said, as relayed by Ariel Helwani on X (Yahoo's live blog). "I said if I don't take too much damage, we will probably keep going. So maybe we keep going." We haven't seen him bring up Gaethje since the fight.

Gaethje's side

Gaethje is 37, 28-5, and has won three straight. He beat Paddy Pimblett for the interim title at UFC 324 on January 24. On June 14, at UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn, he beat the unbeaten Ilia Topuria for the undisputed belt. Topuria's corner stopped it after round 4 (PostWrestling).

He was a clear underdog both times. He closed at +350 against Topuria, a 21% chance, and +200 against Pimblett, a 32% chance, per our Gaethje page.

He hasn't defended the title and hasn't said whether he will fight again. Heavy reports he damaged both hands against Topuria; we found no statement from him on it. In June he told The JRE MMA Show, "There's not something natural in me that feels like it's over," MMA Junkie reported. He also ruled out a Topuria rematch.

The title picture

Arman Tsarukyan (24-3) is ranked No. 2 at lightweight, behind Topuria, in the UFC's rankings. He has won six straight, most recently a first-round knockout of Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 331 on September 19, where he closed at -315 (our Tsarukyan page). In comments posted on X by Championship Rounds on Thursday, October 22, he said: "As I heard, I'm gonna fight for the title next." Heavy reported the post; the UFC hasn't confirmed it.

Gaethje has said he expects Tsarukyan next, according to ESPN.

Volkanovski is 0-2 at lightweight, both times against then-champion Islam Makhachev in 2023. He lost a close decision at UFC 284 in February, then was knocked out in round 1 at UFC 294 in October. That rematch, at +205, is his only fight as an underdog in our closing-odds records. We have no closing odds for the first Makhachev fight or the Topuria loss.

We think the real obstacle is Tsarukyan's place in line, not White. The retirement plan fixes the long-term problem, because two vacated belts leave neither division frozen. It doesn't fix the short-term one: a superfight in 2027 would push back a contender who has heard his shot comes in early 2027.