UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski looks incredible as the king at 145 pounds. He has beaten Max Holloway twice, Brian Ortega, and The Korean Zombie via TKO

It has become commonplace for successful champs like Volkanovski to aim for a second belt in another weight class. Stars like Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Henry Cejudo, and Amanda Nunes have done it successfully while others like TJ Dillashaw and Israel Adesanya have come up short. It’s a true gamble. Win and you become legend. Lose and you become the champ who should have stayed quietly in their own division.

One guarantee is that the hype around the attempt is bigger than a regular title bout. The fight generally markets itself and pay per view buys will almost certainly be up.

Another thing we can say as fans is that Dana White won’t let just anyone bounce around weight classes unless it makes at least a reasonable amount of sense – and dollars. Right now it’s hard to know what is going through Dana‘s head when it comes to championship challengers because the divisions are getting more stacked with viable contenders by the day.

In the case of Alexander Volkanovski one of the fights being tossed around is a third bout with former champ Max Holloway. Alex won the first fight by decision, the second was a controversial split decision so the idea of a third fight between Max and Alex sounds good at first blush. The issue is that it takes a shot at the belt away from a worthy contender that may have never had a crack at a belt. So does a champ moving up a division and immediately taking a title shot.

Lightweight contender and prodigy Islam Makhachev is on a ten fight win streak and waiting for a call from UFC matchmakers. Lightweight champion Charles Oliveira is probably expecting the same call if he can successfully defend against Justin Gaethje in May. It is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when for Islam to get his shot.

It was no surprise that he was one of the fighters not happy with Alexander wanting to move up and potentially take that chance at a shot away.

Islam isn’t wrong. What do you think? Should Alexander move up and immediately challenge for the title?