MIAMI – Alexander ‘The Great’ Volkanovski is the featherweight champion once again after winning a unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 49-46) over Diego Lopes in this past Saturday’s UFC 314 headline at Kaseya Center.

According to MMADecisions, 19 media members scored the bout 49-46 in Volkanovski’s favor, and three others had it 48-47 for the two-time champion.

Volk hooked up his betting supporters as a -162 favorite at DraftKings. Prop bets for him to win by decision had a +190 payout at BetRivers. Wagers on ‘over’ 4.5 rounds (-107 price) and ‘yes’ for the fight go to a decision (+110 to +114 range) were also winners.

Volk had a 158-63 advantage over Lopes in significant strikes. His fight IQ was the difference, as he mostly avoided the heavy shots that kept coming from the hard-hitting Lopes for 25 minutes.

One exception was late in the second round when Lopes dropped Volk. However, Volk got back to controlling the distance and consistently clipping Lopes with his left hook and straight right.

In doing so, the 36-year-old Volk became the first champion under the welterweight division to attain UFC gold at the age of 35 or older. Despite sporting some swelling damage around both eyes after the fight, Volk insisted that he wanted to get back to being active and consistently defending his strap.

In fact, he said it wasn’t a matter of if he’d defend the belt again in 2025. Instead, it was a question of whether he’d defend it twice. The win put an end to a two-fight slide for Volk that included a pair of KO losses vs. Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria.

When he returns, the most likely opponent is Movsar Evloev, a 31-year-old Russian who is 19-0 overall and 9-0 in the UFC. His last three wins have come over former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling, Arnold Allen and Lopes.

BetOnline has Volk listed as a -125 favorite vs. Evloev (+105).

In the co-main event, Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett produced the most impressive performance of his career by destroying Michael Chandler via third-round knockout with ruthless ground-and-pound punishment.

“This is how we win,” Pimblett said after improving to 23-3 overall and 7-0 in the UFC. “We game plan. We use our fight IQ and we beat mother fuckers up. Anyone else got any questions?”

The 30-year-old Liverpool product moved up to #8 in the lightweight rankings with the victory. He’s now on a nine-fight winning streak and hasn’t tasted defeat since 2018.

Pimblett cashed tickets as a -165 ‘chalk.’ Prop bets on the rising star to win by KO (+320 at BetRivers) and in Round 3 (16/1 at FanDuel!) had lucrative returns. Bets on ‘over’ 3.5 rounds cashed for a +163 return when the scrap was halted at the 3:07 mark.

Pimblett earned his fifth finish (second KO to go with three submissions) and Performance of the Night bonus of his UFC tenure.

The 38-year-old Chandler lost his third straight fight and fell to 1-5 in his last six Octagon appearances. He’s now 2-5 during his seven-fight run with the promotion.

We should note, however, that three of Chandler’s defeats have come in bouts that earned Fight of the Night honors.

Volk-Lopes wasn’t the only highly anticipated featherweight showdown at this show. There were two others on the main card in Yair Rodriguez vs. Patricio Pitbull and Bryce Mitchell vs. Jean Silva.

Rodriguez dominated Pitbull via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) as a favorite in the -150 to -160 range. Prop bets on Rodriguez to win by decision cashed for a +185 return at BetRivers, while wagers on ‘yes’ for the fight to go the distance hit at a -136 price.

Rodriguez ended a two-fight losing slide. Pitbull, who was making his promotional debut, has now lost three of his last four scraps.

During Thursday’s UFC 314 press conference, Rodriguez and Lopes had an extended war of words that was unfortunately conducted in Spanish. A matchup between these two seems likely for their next Octagon appearances.

BetOnline has Lopes installed as a -255 ‘chalk’ vs. Rodriguez, who is +215 on the comeback.

Silva won a competitive opening frame vs. Mitchell on all three of the judges’ scorecards, and then he put him to sleep with a ninja choke at the 3:52 mark of Round 2. The 28-year-old Brazilian improved to 16-2 overall and 5-0 in the UFC while extending his winning streak to 13 fights in a row.

FanDuel had 15/1 odds on Silva to win by submission.

In the opener of the pay-per-view portion of the card, Dominick Reyes won his third consecutive fight by scoring a one-punch KO of Nikita Krylov at the 2:24 mark of first round. Reyes hooked up his backers as a +140 underdog.

Props for the former light heavyweight title contender to win by KO brought home a +335 payout. Gamblers taking Reyes to win in Round 1 netted a +600 return.

Silva and Pimblett earned an extra $50,000 for Performance of the Night honors ahead of Reyes. Volk and Lopes also took home an extra 50K for waging the Fight of the Night.

The Octagon is back in Kansas City this weekend.