He thought he was done with trilogies, but Alex Volkanovski's coach Joe Lopez feels another three-fight rivalry may be on the cards following his charge's highly-disputed loss to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev last weekend.
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Makhachev claimed the mega-bout by unanimous decision, but debate has raged in the aftermath, with plenty of good judges feeling Volkanovski should have got the nod following the five-round war.
After admittedly feeling Makhachev may have edged the contest in the immediate aftermath, a second and third viewing of the bout left Lopez convinced Volkanovski should have got his hand raised.
"I gave Alex [rounds] two, three and definitely number five," Lopez said.
"As a coach, I always look at things a little bit more critically, a little bit harder than the fan. The fan looks at what their fighter does well, me, I'm looking at a lot of things.
"After the fight I actually thought Islam might have edged him out, but as soon as the fight was over and we re-watched it a couple of times we all came to the conclusion [that Alex won].
"That second round was the one that was in dispute. I thought [Makhachev] had dropped him but he didn't, Alex was walking in and got caught off balance.
"It wasn't even a flash knockdown so you had score that round for Alex. I thought it was a close fight, but I definitely think Alex won."
He may not have lost on the cards, but Volkanovski won virtually everywhere else, retaining his pound-for-pound No. 1 ranking having gone up a division and shattered the champion's previous aura of invincibility.
While it's a "strange" feeling in defeat, Lopez feels his long-time pupil's stocks have risen higher than they did through a host of previous victories.
"Islam was the boogeyman, he was the favourite, I think 90 per cent of UFC fighters and analysts didn't give Alex a chance," Lopez said.
"A smaller man against a bigger man that everyone was afraid of, they just thought Islam would grab hold of him submit him in the first, maybe the second round.
"No one gave him a chance and Alex proved them all wrong. It's not taking anything away from Islam, because he is a great fighter, but he's never copped a beating like that.
"He might have won the fight, but he didn't beat Alex."
It took three fights to settle Volkanovski to bury his rivalry with former featherweight champion Max Holloway, and Lopez feels a second meeting - and possible third - meeting with Makhachev is inevitable.
Whether it will be the next-up assignment is more questionable, with newly crowned interim featherweight champion Yair Rodriguez waiting in the wings.
"There's too much hype for [a rematch] not to happen but [when is] not up to us," Lopez said.
"It's not like boxing where you put rematch clauses in and things like that. It's really up to the UFC and I'd say the UFC won't want to hold up two divisions, they've got commitments as far as pay-per-views [with] so many titles.
"The way we're looking at it is we'll probably fight Yair in a couple of months and then, towards the end of the year, if Islam's still around, we'll fight Islam.
"If they have a fight each and they both win, they'll have to have that rematch. If Alex becomes a clear winner [in a rematch], they'll probably have to have a third."
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
