UFC president Dana White told reporters the promotion wouldn’t say no to former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski’s desire to win the title in his home country, l ‘Australia, and this appears to be the case.

Volkanovski wanted to face Ilia Topuria to regain his title.

The UFC will be in Sydney on Feb. 9 for UFC 312, but Topuria won’t be available, so it appears Volkanovski will be in a battle with No. 3-ranked Diego Lopes.

Australian MMA journalist Benny P reported via X Wednesday’s Volkanovski vs. Lopes is set for UFC 312.

Aside from a rematch with Topuria, Volkanovski vs. Lopes is the next best fight to be had at featherweight. There’s no indication in the report if the fight would be for the interim title, but it would make sense, as Volkanovski said earlier this month. I wanted to fight for gold.

The UFC could also opt to make this an interim title fight, as the desire is likely for Topuria to fight on their card. However, the champion has earned the right to rest and recuperate.

After his knockout victory over Max Holloway at UFC 308, the UFC probably wants Topuria’s next title defense to take place in a soccer stadium in his second home country, Spain. Volkanovski said he would love to fight Topuria in that kind of venue.

However, he will have to beat Lopes before earning this opportunity. Lopes has been on fire and as active as anyone in the UFC over the past two years.

He is on a five-fight winning streak and has fought six times since May 2023. Lopes’ only UFC loss came in his promotional debut against undefeated contender Movsar Evloev in May 2023.

It’s an exciting time for the featherweight division with a dominant champion in position to call the shots for his next fight. Under him, the division is seeing some turnover, which could lay the groundwork for the emergence of a new star power at 145 pounds. Evloev could be next in line for a title shot after the Volkanovski-Lopes winner.

The undefeated Russian will face Aljamain Sterling at UFC 310 in December. The winner of this fight will be in a prime position to move into the Top 5, and with Holloway moving down to lightweight for good, his spot in the rankings will be taken by someone else.

Yair Rodriguez has been inactive since February, when he lost by submission to Brian Ortega. Rodriguez has lost two fights in a row, so his next fight could be against someone ranked lower than him. A potential matchup for Rodriguez could be No. 7 Arnold Allen.

This fight could be a match to keep your spot in the queue for Rodriguez, but yet another opportunity for Allen to ascend. In previous attempts to qualify for a title shot, Allen came up short against Holloway and Evloev.

The UFC has not officially announced any fights for the card, but it appears a Volkanovski-Lopes fight would land at the main event spot. A major women’s bantamweight or flyweight fight could fall into the co-main event slot.

Stay tuned as we wait for more information on UFC 311 and 312.