Alexander Volkanovski shuts down the possibility of fighting Aljamain Sterling

• UFC

The former UFC champion Aljamain Sterling was looking forward to shifting to the featherweight division, but after the recent loss against Sean O'Malley, Sterling believes he will have to reassess a few things and then make a proper decision for the future.

The featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski was ready to fight Sterling and pick Sterling over Ilia Topuria, but Volkanovski couldn't see it happening anymore because of Sterling's TKO loss.How exciting would a match between Aljamain Sterling and Alexander Volkanovski turn out to be? Unfortunately, we will have to wait a little longer to witness and answer that ourselves.

Volkanovski will most likely defend his belt against the top contender Ilia Topuria next, as Topuria has strongly been demanding that fight.

Alexander Volkanovski on fighting Aljmain Sterling

Alexander Volkanovski, on his recent YouTube video, shared that he won't fight Aljmain Sterling next and explained why.

Volkanovski also reveals the timeframe in which he wants to make his return. "That's not happening," Volkanovski said, as quoted by mmafighting.com. "You never know. If he had a big win, he could have took Ilia's spot." "What's next for me? Aljo, if he was to win in wild fashion and called his shot, he could have stepped in front of Ilia.

Ilia's been pretty quiet. I thought he would be chirping, wanting to make sure he gets that fight. But I want to fight as soon as possible. Obviously my elbow (isn't 100 percent), but I'm able to do a fair bit. "I want to be back in there before the end of the year.

Volkanovski further said: Islam's fighting. I want that rematch, but he's fighting in October, so I want to fight before then. I don't want to fight early next year. If I was going to wait that long, it might as well be Islam, but I don't want to wait that long.

So Ilia, keep running your mouth because I like it. (It) revs me up – makes me want to punch you in the face even more".