The UFC boss has been extremely defensive over his decision to make an immediate rematch between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.

When the UFC 325 main event was announced by Dana White, there was huge uproar from the majority of the MMA fanbase due to the fact that they only fought last April.

Despite that, the UFC boss responded in typical White fashion and invited fans not to watch the main event if they have a problem with it.

And now just days out from the clash down under, Alexander Volkanovski could take a huge step towards securing GOAT status at featherweight by matching a record held by Jose Aldo.

What surprised Dana White most about Volkanovski and Lopes’ first meeting

Since their first meeting last April at UFC 314, Diego Lopes went on to bounce back from his loss by scoring one of the most impressive wins of the year against Jean Silva.

Alexander ‘The Great’ on the other hand hasn’t fought since, and in fact, he thought he would be fighting either Lerone Murphy or Movsar Evloev next, having called both fighters out.

However, despite the UFC 325 main event booking coming as quite the surprise not only to the fans, but to Volkanovski too, it is still expected to be a close matchup.

In their first meeting, Volkanovski surprisingly had a lot of his success in the pocket against the powerful Brazilian contender.

But the most surprising aspect of the fight for White, was that despite Lopes’ big height advantage, he doesn’t actually hold a big reach advantage over the 5’6″ champion.

“I thought (Volkanovski) looked incredible tonight, I don’t ever remember Volk not having a good chin and he’s really not that old,” White said during the UFC 314 pre-fight press conference.

“Yeah (I was surprised how many big shots Lopes was able to take). A fascinating thing one of the production guys was telling me before the fight was that Lopes is five inches taller, but only had a one inch reach advantage, something like that.

“Because I was surprised that Diego wasn’t throwing more jabs and trying to stay on the outside and use his reach advantage a lot more but it was a good fight, both guys dug deep and battled,” he continued.

Where does Volkanovski rank amongst the featherweight GOATs?

During his two-time featherweight title reign, the 37-year-old has fought and beat some of the best fighters in his division’s history.

Holding three wins over Max Holloway and a win over Jose Aldo, Volkanovski is seemingly close to cementing his spot as the featherweight GOAT.

With another impressive win over Lopes, the Australian would set up a potential clash against one of two undefeated contenders, which would go a long way towards his legacy.