Alexander Volkanovski can once more call himself the sole king of the featherweights, successfully unifying the divisional crowns in the main event of UFC 290 — stopping interim champion, Yair Rodríguez with a barrage of late third round ground strikes.
Volkanovski, who made his featherweight division return at UFC 290 tonight, had headlined UFC 284 back in February in Perth, Australia — suffering his first promotional loss in a unanimous decision loss to lightweight titleholder, Islam Makhachev in a close, back-and-forth unanimous judging loss.
Landing an early lead over interim champion and Chihuahua striker, Rodríguez in tonight’s title unification bout, Volkanovski mixed up his striking with his dominant wrestling at times throughout the early rounds, opening a nasty laceration on the face of the former interim champion.