ANAHEIM, Calif. — Alexander Volkanovsky played up his age this week, dressing up in grandfatherly clothes, donning old man glasses and pretending to be asleep at a prefight news conference.
Volganovsky never really aged. He's only 35. But technically, that's an advanced age for the UFC featherweight champion. In fact, no male fighter at lightweight or below has ever won a title after turning 35.
That's the biggest storyline leading up to Volkanovsky's title defense against Ilya Topuria in the main event of UFC 298 here at the Honda Center on Saturday night. Topuria is just 27 years old and one of MMA's most exciting young fighters. Can Volkanovski make history and prove himself to be the exception to the 35-year rule? Or will he pass the 145-pound torch to the well-rounded Topuria?
ESPN ranks Volkanovski as No. 3 in the world on its pound-for-pound list. At featherweight, ESPN ranked Volkanovski no. 1 and Topuria no. 5.
Volkanovski (26-3) has five successful featherweight title defenses and six UFC featherweight titles, tied for second all-time. The Australian-born fighter lost to UFC lightweight champion Islam Makache by knockout at UFC 294 in October. Volkanovsky also lost to Makhachev by unanimous decision in February 2023 before defending his featherweight belt against Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 last July.
Topuria (14-0) has won four of his first six UFC fights. Born in Germany, the fighter is of Georgian descent and lives in Spain. Topuria won a unanimous decision over Josh Emmett last June.
In the co-main event of UFC 298, former UFC middleweight champion Robert Whittaker takes on former title challenger Paulo Costa. ESPN has Whittaker ranked No. 3 in the world at middleweight.
UFC 298 fight card
ESPN+ PPV, 10 p.m. ET
Men's Featherweight Championship: Alexander Volkanovsky (c) vs. Ilya Topuria
Middleweight: Robert Whittaker vs. Paulo Costa
Welterweight: Jeff Neal vs. Ian Machado Carey
Men's bantamweight: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Henry Cejudo
Middleweight: Anthony Hernandez vs. Roman Kopilov
ESPN/ESPN+, 8 pm
Strawweight: Amanda Lemos vs. Mackenzie Dern
Heavyweight: Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Justin Taffa
Bantamweight: Rinya Nakamura vs. Carlos Vera
Light Heavyweight: Zhang Mingyang vs. Brentson Ribeiro
ESPN+, 6:30 p.m
Welterweight: Danny Barlow vs. Josh Quinlan
Welterweight: Open Elliott vs. Val Woodburn
Women's Flyweight: Andrea Lee vs. Miranda Maverick
(c) = Defending champion
