Volkanovski claims featherweight belt at UFC 314 with unanimous decision over Lopes

MIAMI (AP) — Title fights are nothing new to Alexander Volkanovski.

His featherweight bout early Sunday morning against Diego Lopes was his 10th championship fight in a row, but Volkanovski had been in a slump in which he had lost three of his past four matches.

He left little doubt against Lopes at UFC 314, winning by unanimous decision. Two judges scored the fight 49-46 and the other had it 48-47.

“It's good to be back,” Volkanovski said. “I promised my girls I would bring the belt back to them. It doesn't matter about bringing the belt back. The message was a lot of people counted me out.”

Volkanovski (27-4) had successfully defended his belt four times before moving up a weight class and losing to Israel Makhachev on Feb. 11, 2023. Then after reclaiming the featherweight title five months later over Yair Rodriguez, Volkanovski lost back-to-back matches.

Now he has championship back.

President Donald Trump, a longtime friend of UFC President and CEO Dana White and a fan of the sport, watched from the front row. Shaquille O'Neal approached Trump and shook his hand. Cabinet officials Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also were in attendance as was X (formerly Twitter) owner and White House adviser Elon Musk.

In the co-main event, No. 12 lightweight contender Paddy Pimblett continued his UFC rise with a technical knockout of No. 7 Michael Chandler at 3:07 of the third round. Pimblett, a 30-year-old from Liverpool, England, has won all seven of his bouts since moving to the organization, giving him a 23-3 record overall.

“I want that world title,” Pimblett said. “Some say I'll never be champ, I'll never get run, I'll never be in the top 10. But what now?”

At nearly 39, Chandler has some decisions to making after winning just two of his most recent seven bouts. He is 23-10.

Featherweight Bryce Mitchell, who fought for the first time since praising Adolf Hitler and denying the Holocaust on a podcast, was also on the card. He later backed off his comments and though White heavily criticized Mitchell, he didn’t discipline him.

Mitchell was little match for Jean Silva in their featherweight fight. Silva won by submission with a guillotine choke with 1:08 left in the second round.

Volkanovski, despite getting cut below his right eye in the second and being floored by an overhand right in that round, dominated the first three rounds. But Lopes' glove caught Volkanovski's other eye in the fourth round and then pounced, but failed to put him away.

That set up the fifth round and, barring a knockout, Volkanovski appeared on his way to victory even though Lopes spent much of the fight verbally challenging him and inviting him to box. Theatrics to the contrary, Volkanovski was the aggressor.

Volkanovski had hoped to get another shot at Ilia Topuria and avenge his loss from more than a year ago at UFC 298. But Topuria moved up to the lightweight division, leaving the featherweight class vacant.

In stepped Lopes, the third-ranked challenger, to take on Volkanovski, the 36-year-old from Australia. Lopes, a 30-year-old from Brazil, was in first title bout.

“Maybe I came up short on the technical piece,” Lopes said through an interpreter. “I can see myself coming back. I have only two years in this organization, and I think I'm going to train better. I'm going to get better."

Volkanovski was a -160 favorite at BetMGM Sportsbook to defeat Lopes (26-7), whose five-match winning streak ended.

In preparing for Lopes, Volkanovski said he fully committed himself by beginning training camp earlier than usual and focusing on the workout recovery process and dieting in addition to the physical demands. He said he has never been this lean going into a bout.

Volkanovski had plenty of reason for wanting to get to work. He took an extended layoff after losing in February 2024 to Topuria. More than that, he’s coming off defeats in three of his past four fights, including losing the two most recent matches. All four fights occurred in less than a year, so he was much more rested.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Diego Lopes, left, and Alexander Volkanovski, right, battle during a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Diego Lopes, left, and Alexander Volkanovski, right, battle during a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Alexander Volkanovski, left, and Diego Lopes battle during a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

President Donald Trump, from left, Elon Musk, his son X Æ A-Xii, and from background left, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard attend a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

President Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he arrives at a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Michael Chandler, left, and Paddy Pimblett , right, battle during a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Michael Chandler is bloodied during his fight against Paddy Pimblett in a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Paddy Pimblett reacts after defeating Michael Chandler during a mixed martial arts fight at UFC 314, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Thousands of people rallied Saturday in the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement to mobilize a new voting rights era as conservative states dismantle congressional districts that helped secure Black political representation.

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Montgomery “sacred soil” in the fight for civil rights.

“If we in our generation do not now do our duty, we will lose the gains and the rights and the liberties that our ancestors afforded us,” Booker said.

The crowd was led in chants of “we won’t go back” and “we fight.”

“We are not going down without a fight. We are not going down to Jim Crow maps,” Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case said.

A crowd of thousands gathered in front of the city’s historic Alabama Capitol, the place where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in 1965 at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. The stage, set in front of the Capitol, was flanked from behind by statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and civil rights icon Rosa Parks — dueling tributes erected nearly 90 years apart.

Speakers said the spot was once the temple of the confederacy and became holy ground of the civil rights movement.

Some in the crowd said the effort to redraw lines has echoes of the past.

“We lived through the “60s. It takes you back. When you think that Alabama’s moving forward, it takes two steps back,” said Camellia A Hooks, 70, of Montgomery, Alabama.

The rally began in Selma, where a violent clash between law enforcement and voting rights activists in 1965 galvanized support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. It then moved to the state Capitol, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “How Long, Not Long” speech that same year.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Louisiana hollowed out voting rights law that was already weakened by a separate decision in 2013 and then narrowed further over the years. That helped clear the way for stricter voter ID laws, registration restrictions, and limits on early voting and polling place changes, including in states that once needed federal preclearance before they could change voting laws because of their historical discrimination against Black voters.

Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement are alarmed by the speed of the rollbacks, noting that protections won through generations of sacrifice have been weakened in little more than a decade.

Kirk Carrington, 75, was a teen in 1965 when law enforcement officers attacked marchers in Selma on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” A white man on a horse wielding a stick chased Carrington through the streets.

“It’s really just appalling to me and all the young people that marched during the ’60s, fought hard to get voting rights, equal rights and civil rights,” Carrington said. “It’s sad that it’s continuing after 60-plus-odd years that we are still fighting for the same thing we fought for back then.”

Montgomery is home to one of the congressional districts that is being altered in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.

A federal court in 2023 redrew Alabama's 2nd Congressional District after ruling that the state intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents, who make up about 27% of its population. The court said there should be a district where Black people are a majority or near-majority and have an opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.

But the Supreme Court cleared the way for a different map that could let the GOP reclaim the seat. While the matter remains under litigation, the state plans special primaries Aug. 11 under the new map.

Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in the district in 2024, said the dispute is not about him but rather people's opportunity to have representation.

“When Republicans are literally turning back the clock on what representation, what the faces of representation, look like, what the opportunities, legitimate opportunities for representation look like across this country, then I think it starts to resonate with people in a little bit of a different way,” Figures said.

Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, a Republican, said the Louisiana ruling provided an opportunity to revisit a map that was forced on the state by the federal court.

“People tend to forget what happened. When this thing went to court, the Republican Party had that seat, congressional seat two,” Ledbetter said last week. “There’s been a push through the courts to try to overtake some of these red state seats, and that’s certainly what happened in that one.”

Evan Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, said there is grief over the implosion of the Voting Rights Act but it is crucial that people recommit to the fight.

“We have to accept that this is the new reality, whether we like it or not,” Milligan said. “We don’t have to accept that this will be the reality for the next 10 years or two years or forever.”

A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

The State capitol is seen during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

People gather during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Aaron McGuire sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)