In today’s UFC, you have two classes of contenders. There’s the quiet guys who have built up wild winning streaks but lack a certain flair on the mic and social media. And then there’s the ones with less than perfect records who remain in the mix because of their clear popularity with the fans.
The divide between these two classes is pretty obvious at featherweight, where Alexander Volkanovski just beat back the popular Diego Lopes for a second time in a row at UFC 325 while Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy sit on the sidelines with 9-fight UFC winning streaks. Following the event, “The Great” called for the winner of a potential Evloev vs. Murphy fight rumored for UFC London. But if we were to bet on who Volk fights next, we’d consider putting money on Jean Silva.
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Sure, Silva just lost to Diego Lopes in September 2025. But he rode Arnold Allen like a surf board at UFC 324 in one of the most viral moments of the night. He cries, he barks, he says crazy things. He fights like a wild man, unlike the tough but often tedious Evloev and Murphy. And he wasn’t impressed with Volk dismissing him as a contender.
“A champion’s responsibility is to defend the belt,” Silva wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “It doesn’t matter who it’s against. If the company puts someone in front of you, you fight. Champions don’t pick opponents. Champions defend.”
“I know that Volkanovski is asking for Evloev, I don’t know [why],” Silva said in a video post. “He’s asking the guys not to get hurt. Bro, sorry to inform you if you want to stay good and without getting hurt, I understand you. But if you want to fight a guy who hits hard, I’m your guy and I will tell you more: I’m going there to camp with [Ilia] Topuria to break you. I’ll let you know. I’ll warn you, I go there.”
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Volkanovski shrugged off Silva’s comments at the UFC 325 post-fight press conference, suggesting “Lord” was upset because Fighting Nerds teammate Mauricio Ruffy trained with Volk in Australia for his fight against Rafael Fiziev.
“He said that [he would work with Topuria]? Okay,” Volkanovski replied. “I don’t know. I think he’s a bit upset about the Ruffy thing.”
“Supposedly, I don’t know if it’s real that he doesn’t follow Ruffy anymore,” he added. “I don’t know. It shouldn’t be like that. It’s nothing like that. I don’t know why he’s getting so butt hurt about that.”
“I don’t think it was anything more than you’ve got Ruffy, who’s a part of Engage Industries at the moment, AP Management. We connected through that, did a bit of training, and he’s obviously a very good guy. An incredible guy. One of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and obviously just wanted to work with me. So I was always going to work with him. I know [Rafael Fiziev], that was tough because I know Rafael as well, but I was always going to work with Ruffy. I think Jean Silva took that to heart.”
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Whatever the reason, there’s a little heat now between Volkanovski and Silva — which just makes it more likely that the UFC will match them up next and make the winner of Evloev vs. Murphy in March wait. There’s one small consolation for those cheering on the undefeated underdogs at 145: Volkanovski has said he wants to fight three times this year, which means a Volk vs. Lopes fight wouldn’t necessarily keep him from facing the UFC London winner in 2026.
Unless yet another more popular fighter with better mic skills comes along at featherweight.
