Alexander Volkanovski will defend the featherweight championship Saturday in the main event of UFC 290.
He will compete in a title unification bout against interim champ Yair Rodríguez, who seeks to prove he is a genuine threat to Volkanovski’s reign atop the division. Yet there is a pivotal piece of the script that is missing. Volkanovski intended to arrive in Vegas as the champ-champ, ruling over the featherweight and lightweight divisions—and standing tall as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
That will not be the case at 290.
