Alexander Volkanovski lost all vision in his left eye during the second round of his world title win last night.
The Australian defeated Diego Lopes by unanimous decision at the Kaseya Center in Miami on Saturday night at UFC 314, but had to overcome a serious incident in round two. He was blinded in his left eye after being dropped with a big punch, but seemed to get vision back at some point towards the end.
Volkanovski has now broken the curse that former champions over the age of 36 can’t reclaim their belts. He is keen to return to action soon, liking a fight by the end of the summer, with perhaps a third before years’ end after 14 months on the sideline.
After seemingly showing a vast gap between their striking abilities during the first two rounds, with just seconds to go in the sophomore stanza Alexander Volkanovski was dropped by Lopes. He had also suffered a nasty cut, and for a brief moment, it looked as though the tide might be turning against him.
Luckily, he regained composure and continued to bank rounds on route to a comfortable decision victory. However, he told Fox Sports Australia after the fact that his left eye was completely blinded when asked just how severely hurt he was.
“I completely lost vision in my left eye,” he explained. “It was a good shot and then I could not see. I was trying to get it back and it was completely gone, slowly came back and most of the fight I could at least see a little blur which helped.
“It went from nothing which made me go ‘oh s—, this ain’t good’, to a little blur. That got me a little better to understand the distance and then it came back a little towards the end. I couldn’t tell you [which shot caused it].”
Despite having such a monumental health scare midway through his first fight in 14 months, Volkanovski wants activity in 2025. When asked in the post-fight press conference about a fight in September, he claimed that it was too far away and that perhaps that could be his third bout of the year.
He is returning from two vicious knockout losses to Ilia Topuria and Islam Makhachev in his last two outings that had fans fear for his career. But it seems he is unfazed by concerns about his long-term health after an impressive comeback performance.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
“September?” He asked, almost offended. “I mean, if everything is good, I’d probably like to go sooner than that, to be honest. I reckon that’s probably the second fight. If I’m good, maybe it can be July and then September, maybe we can fit it in
“I mean, Movsar [Evloev], if they want to do that, if they wanna quickly go and I feel good, maybe a quick turnaround with Movsar if I don’t have busted hands. That was my plan, bang, bang, bang,”
Alexander VolkanovskiDiego LopesFeatherweightIlia TopuriaUFCUFC 314
