Hot Take Could Volk be considered the GOAT with a second win over Lopes + Evloev?

[Subline]

10 title wins is pretty much the price of entry and he is at 7. (7-3)

This is old. I think Jones got to 16

Fedor won 18 straight with the biggest target in the sport on his back.

He is closing the gap. You can make an argument that he had caught Josa Aljo for 145 goat but you will rightly get push back because it is debatable.

He hasn't got there.

2 more title wins would help.

Some fighter's have stronger pre-title resumes than others, we should take that into account too. Merab beat Aldo, Cejudo, Yan, Moraes before even touching the title. Those wins shouldn't just be dismissed because they're not title wins, for example.

Strength of schedule for the title fights matters too, ignoring it promotes ducking and favorable matchmaking. Take the 2024 Stipe fight, we all bashed that fight yet seemingly care little when addressing Jones "16 title wins"? It doesn't follow.

 

[jeff7b9]

Some fighter's have stronger pre-title resumes than others, we should take that into account too. Merab beat Aldo, Cejudo, Yan, Moraes before even touching the title. Those wins shouldn't just be dismissed because they're not title wins, for example.

Strength of schedule for the title fights matters too, ignoring it promotes ducking and favorable matchmaking. Take the 2024 Stipe fight, we all bashed that fight yet seemingly care little when addressing Jones "16 title wins"? It doesn't follow.

I agree. Context matters.

Hence why there is a case for Volk with 7 title wins being equal or above Aldo 11 (8 UFC + 3 WEC)

Staying power at the top of the game is the ultimate criteria. Generally this is most easily assessed with title wins, but there is some leeway for pre title or post title quality wins.


You have asked a question and it seems a pretty clear consensus from the room that Volk is not there yet.

2 more wins, should he achieve that, over
Diego (a fairly low quality win in terms of legacy) and
Evloev (quality win should he pull it off) ... would help.

But... even so that probably brings him to the threshold of "GOAT status"
Not
Cased closed he is in.


Honestly I'd say he is going to have a hard time to actually cement himself in the true status of "MMA GOAT"

He likely tops out at FW GOAT and 2nd tier GOAT adjacent with guys like Aldo Islam, Izzy, DC, Pereira, Khabib.
Which is pretty amazing.



It's not a disregard of his career it is a measure of respect to what the guys on that short list did


Jones - 16 UFC title wins, basically undefeated, 2 div champ (Volk came up short here) title wins spanning over a decade


Anderson- 16 fight UFC win streak, 11 title wins, top 5 in 3 weight classes, raised the bar for top level striking and changed the sport


GSP - 13 title wins. Defeated every man he ever faced, 2 division champ. Face of the sport for years

Mighty Mouse - 12 consecutive title wins. Then won I believe 3-4 more OneFC title fights. DOMINATED his division for 6 years or so.


Fedor- untouchable for a decade in what is generally considered the deepest HW division ever

Won the highest title in the sport and then won 18 straight fights with that target on his back.
Didn't really lose until 34 fights into his career.. while also undefeated for a decade or so in Combat Sambo and multiple time world champ.


That's the goat tier. Volk isn't there.
And he is getting old.

 

[Contempt]

I'm a huge fan of Volk and fellow Australian but LOL no.

145 GOAT yeah, but overall? Come on, did you just start watching MMA?

 

[JKS]

Could he even? He hasn’t surpassed Aldo at ranked wins, title wins, or title defenses and Aldo set those numbers in one reign. Volk is a beast but Aldo is too far ahead in accomplishments at FW.

I think Volk already has surpassed him. What keeps Aldo even competitive with Volk is his WEC run. While that may have been a big contribution 10-15 years ago, I think in 2026 it's certainly less relevant. Their UFC records is what speaks more than anything and Volk is slightly more impressive in that respect. A record of 14-1 with 7 title wins and 6 defenses (2 time champ) and 10 ranked wins vs Aldo 10-4, 8 title wins with 7 defenses and 9 ranked wins.

Aldo has slightly more title wins and defenses, but Volk has a overall more impressive record and the stronger wins at FW resume wise. So I give him the edge there slighlty.

But where I think Volk pulls ahead is the fact that Aldo lost 4 fights to the other 3 FW goat contenders. Him getting KO'd by Conor, 2x by Max and losing to Volk really takes him out of the top spot. Aldo was the clear FW goat at one point, but I just can't see him being FW goat considering he clearly lost to the 3 other top FW's of all time. It's one thing if he just lost to Conor or Max or Volk. But all three?? You can't say a fighter is the greatest of all time when he lost to 3 other guys in the division at his best.

 

[JKS]

Overall goat?? No, that is not possible at the moment. FW goat? Sure;ly, I htink he's pretty much already the FW goat.

 

[prime_lobov]

Jones has a clear unavenged loss to Reyes though, it's an indisputable 48-47 Reyes to any objective viewer.

Losing to Reyes by decision, who went on to get slumped 3 times back to back (including a loss to Ryan Spann), is a worse look than getting KOd by Ilia, who went on to be a double champ who was P4P no. 1 for a time, and the first man to KO Holloway.

Time to step away from the keyboard, DC.

 

[Superzorro]

Jones has a clear unavenged loss to Reyes though, it's an indisputable 48-47 Reyes to any objective viewer.

Losing to Reyes by decision, who went on to get slumped 3 times back to back (including a loss to Ryan Spann), is a worse look than getting KOd by Ilia, who went on to be a double champ who was P4P no. 1 for a time, and the first man to KO Holloway.

So does that mean every fight Volk had that was close is a loss? That means he’s 1-2 against Holloway with a loss to Aldo. Then he got knocked out by Islam once, lost a decision against him in the other fight and has been KO’d by Topuria. Thats like six losses. Are you sure you want to play that game?

 

[Superzorro]

You seem to be mistaken on Reyes. I am sure the stats says a "W."

Whether we agree with that or not is really irrelevant.

The crazy part is? It’s a unanimous decision. So these people are so far gone psychologically that they’re turning unanimous decisions into losses.

 

[Superzorro]

Some fighter's have stronger pre-title resumes than others, we should take that into account too. Merab beat Aldo, Cejudo, Yan, Moraes before even touching the title. Those wins shouldn't just be dismissed because they're not title wins, for example.

Strength of schedule for the title fights matters too, ignoring it promotes ducking and favorable matchmaking. Take the 2024 Stipe fight, we all bashed that fight yet seemingly care little when addressing Jones "16 title wins"? It doesn't follow.

Merab beat all those people when they were old and/or had zero momentum.
So if context matters, we have to consider those factors. And yes, that’s why title defenses mean more because you have to actually earn a title shot. You don’t get to fight people who are on losing streaks, generally speaking.

I think Volk already has surpassed him. What keeps Aldo even competitive with Volk is his WEC run. While that may have been a big contribution 10-15 years ago, I think in 2026 it's certainly less relevant. Their UFC records is what speaks more than anything and Volk is slightly more impressive in that respect. A record of 14-1 with 7 title wins and 6 defenses (2 time champ) and 10 ranked wins vs Aldo 10-4, 8 title wins with 7 defenses and 9 ranked wins.

Aldo has slightly more title wins and defenses, but Volk has a overall more impressive record and the stronger wins at FW resume wise. So I give him the edge there slighlty.

But where I think Volk pulls ahead is the fact that Aldo lost 4 fights to the other 3 FW goat contenders. Him getting KO'd by Conor, 2x by Max and losing to Volk really takes him out of the top spot. Aldo was the clear FW goat at one point, but I just can't see him being FW goat considering he clearly lost to the 3 other top FW's of all time. It's one thing if he just lost to Conor or Max or Volk. But all three?? You can't say a fighter is the greatest of all time when he lost to 3 other guys in the division at his best.

They beat him when he already started losing. He was on a downward trajectory and they were moving up. In reality, Aldo is a part of a different generation of fighter. Just because his body couldn’t keep up against the new guard doesn’t mean we get to erase the work he put in in the past. The fact that he was even competitive with them is proof enough.
Competitive with the new era + greater body of work = superior

 

[thewhiterooster]

yes. if you look at a lot of the dudes in the GOAT argument, many of them kept fighting past their prime and chalked up some losses. Anderson and fedor come to mind.

 

[BFoe]

I think Volk already has surpassed him. What keeps Aldo even competitive with Volk is his WEC run. While that may have been a big contribution 10-15 years ago, I think in 2026 it's certainly less relevant. Their UFC records is what speaks more than anything and Volk is slightly more impressive in that respect. A record of 14-1 with 7 title wins and 6 defenses (2 time champ) and 10 ranked wins vs Aldo 10-4, 8 title wins with 7 defenses and 9 ranked wins.

Aldo has slightly more title wins and defenses, but Volk has a overall more impressive record and the stronger wins at FW resume wise. So I give him the edge there slighlty.

But where I think Volk pulls ahead is the fact that Aldo lost 4 fights to the other 3 FW goat contenders. Him getting KO'd by Conor, 2x by Max and losing to Volk really takes him out of the top spot. Aldo was the clear FW goat at one point, but I just can't see him being FW goat considering he clearly lost to the 3 other top FW's of all time. It's one thing if he just lost to Conor or Max or Volk. But all three?? You can't say a fighter is the greatest of all time when he lost to 3 other guys in the division at his best.

Aldo’s WEC title wins and defenses absolutely need to be counted, since the WEC’s FW division literally became the UFC FW division, and the WEC title became the UFC FW title.

So here are the stats.

Ranked wins: Aldo 12, Volk 10
Title wins: Aldo 11, Volk 7
Title defenses: Aldo 9, Volk 5
FW win streak: Aldo 25, Volk 16

To me, these are what matter, and any FW who wants to eclipse Jose needs to eclipse him in (at least most of) these metrics. The fact that Aldo lost some fights late in his career, after accomplishing all of this, isn’t particularly relevant to me. The Max and Volk fights were in like 2017 and 2019, an older fighter losing fights to younger fighters isn’t news.

To me, this comparison is not close. Like, at all. Jose Aldo is significantly ahead of Volk in every important metric. If Volk gets somewhat close to tying these, then it’s relevant to start looking at specific opponents of each guy and see how we feel about the comparison. But it really, really bothers me when people just say “oh, I just don’t think the opponents of yesteryear are as good as today, so it’s cool to just have 5 defenses and be GOAT” when the record is 9.

 

[bjjwar]

Wait, what? A 30-27 non-title fight is more notable than 21-year-old Jones brutally dismantling an all-time great, not just TKO’ing him but making him tap to strikes like a bitch?

Volk attempted to move up and lose twice, once by KO, and was also brutally KO’d by Ilia in his native division. Jones moved up and became champ and never lost except by DQ at LHW. Volk is not close to Jones in the goat discussion. 145 goat sure, but not all-round goat.

Yeah, but Shogun was way past his prime and basically dead at that time and LHW was for years at an all time low. Chael fu**ing Sonnen finished Shogun in 30 sec...

You cant compare fighting at deep lower weightclasses to LHW and HW. Also those guys were all basically MW's past their prime, 90% of dudes Jones fought were 90 yr old wahsed up MW's.As soon as Jones fought any dude even unskilled but not 5ft5 and 9à yrs old like Gustaffson, Marreta, Reyes, OSP, etc he struggled and looked terrible. Still can't believe he actually fought freaking 90yr old Chael Sonnen and Anthony fu**ing Smith lol.

It would be like Volk beating Julian Erosa and calling him the goat after that lol.

 

[bjjwar]

Aldo’s WEC title wins and defenses absolutely need to be counted; since the WEC’s FW division literally became the UFC FW division, and the WEC title became the UFC FW title.

So here are the stats.

Ranked wins: Aldo 12, Volk 10
Title wins: Aldo 11, Volk 7
Title defenses: Aldo 9, Volk 5
FW win streak: Aldo 25, Volk 16

To me, these are what matter, and any FW who wants to eclipse Jose needs to eclipse him in (at least most of) these metrics. The fact that Aldo lost some fights late in his career, after accomplishing all of this, isn’t particularly relevant to me. The Max and Volk fights were in like 2017 and 2019, an older fighter losing fights to younger fighters isn’t news.

To me, this comparison is not close. Like, at all. Jose Aldo is significantly ahead of Volk in every important metric. If Volk gets somewhat close to tying these, then it’s relevant to start looking at specific opponents of each guy and see how we feel about the comparison. But it really, really bothers me when people just say “oh, I just don’t think the opponents of yesteryear are as good as today, so it’s cool to just have 5 defenses and be GOAT” when the record is 9.

10000% they need to be counted, that was basically the UFC's FW division back then and those guys came over after.

 

[Subline]

So does that mean every fight Volk had that was close is a loss? That means he’s 1-2 against Holloway with a loss to Aldo. Then he got knocked out by Islam once, lost a decision against him in the other fight and has been KO’d by Topuria. Thats like six losses. Are you sure you want to play that game?

Volk vs Max 1 was a CLEAR win for Volk, claiming that it was "close" is on par with claiming DC vs Jones 1 was close. Both claims are outlandish.
Volk vs Aldo was also a resounding 30-27.
Volk vs Max 2 was competitive, not a robbery like the Reyes fight, it's more in line with the Jones vs Gus 1 fight, which I didn't claim was a robbery for that reason.
Which leaves us with the Reyes loss vs Ilia loss, and it's pretty clear which of those is a worse look.

I'm comparing Volk's FW run to Jones' LHW run, Islam is not a part of that conversation. You can compare Volk's LW run to Jones' HW run but it's hard to draw any conclusions since Volk fought the P4P no. 1 while Jones cherry picked his fights and retired instead of fighting his Islam equivalent (Aspinall).

 

[Angelassassin53]

Wait, what? A 30-27 non-title fight is more notable than 21-year-old Jones brutally dismantling an all-time great, not just TKO’ing him but making him tap to strikes like a bitch?

Volk attempted to move up and lose twice, once by KO, and was also brutally KO’d by Ilia in his native division. Jones moved up and became champ and never lost except by DQ at LHW. Volk is not close to Jones in the goat discussion. 145 goat sure, but not all-round goat.

Volk also never failed 4 drug tests

Jones and Silva are DQd for GOAT status in any legitimate conversation imo

 

[prime_lobov]

Yeah, but Shogun was way past his prime and basically dead at that time and LHW was for years at an all time low. Chael fu**ing Sonnen finished Shogun in 30 sec...

You cant compare fighting at deep lower weightclasses to LHW and HW. Also those guys were all basically MW's past their prime, 90% of dudes Jones fought were 90 yr old wahsed up MW's.As soon as Jones fought any dude even unskilled but not 5ft5 and 9à yrs old like Gustaffson, Marreta, Reyes, OSP, etc he struggled and looked terrible. Still can't believe he actually fought freaking 90yr old Chael Sonnen and Anthony fu**ing Smith lol.

It would be like Volk beating Julian Erosa and calling him the goat after that lol.

Man, now we’re comparing Shogun to Julian Erosa? I get that LHW is shallow but Jones beat the best in the division, including DC and Gustaffson, and more revently moved up and won at HW.

 

[Subline]

Merab beat all those people when they were old and/or had zero momentum.
So if context matters, we have to consider those factors. And yes, that’s why title defenses mean more because you have to actually earn a title shot. You don’t get to fight people who are on losing streaks, generally speaking.

Stipe was coming off aloss
Sonnen was coming off a loss
OSP was 1-1 in his last 2
Gane was 1-1 in his last 2
Shogun was 1-1 in his last 2
Machida was 1-2 in his last 3
2018 Gus was 2-2 in his last 4

Adversely, Jose Aldo was riding a 3 fight win streak prior to the Merab fight. Sure Yan/Cejudo were coming off losses but again there's context, Cejudo gave the champ Aljo a helluva fight, same for Yan against Aljo + O'Malley.

The truth is that there is a lot more that goes into a title shot than merit. Sometimes it's the state of the division (common in the heavier ones), sometimes it's the lack of remaining contenders for the champ, sometimes it's just best for business (e.g Adesanya vs DDP).

 

[Steve Fox]

Had he not lost to Topuria, he would be one of the GOATs for sure.

 

[Killer Whale]

TS is obviously a Jones hater and biased. Giving false information and discounting everything Jones has done. Pitiful attempt actually lol

Look at the TS avatar, of course they believe in nonsense.

 

[jeff7b9]

Had he not lost to Topuria, he would be one of the GOATs for sure.

Yup. I would add Islam 1st fight as well, which was close enough that he COULD have gotten the W if he performed just a level or so up.

Then instead of 7-3 in title fights he would be 9-1 (presuming he loses the Islam rematch which is likely)

9-1.... + 2 division champ and Islam and Ilia on the resume. - yeah.
We can talk GOAT.


BUT fish can't ride bicycles and my aunt isn't my uncle and as my boy Max would say