Demetrious Johnson wants to see Alexander Volkanovski vs. Jean Silva next.
After Volkanovski (29-4 MMA, 16-3 UFC) defended the featherweight title for the second time in his second reign with a second-round TKO of Movsar Evloev (20-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) on Saturday at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, there's a burning question about who should be next for "The Great."
Volkanovski is pushing for a move to lightweight for a super fight with champion Justin Gaethje, but if that doesn't happen, he has multiple potential contenders at 145 pounds. The winner of next month's UFC Fight Night 294 bout between Aljamain Sterling (26-5 MMA, 18-5 UFC) and Kevin Vallejos (18-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) is among them, as is Silva, who was cageside watching at UFC 333.
UFC Hall of Famer Johnson sides with Silva (18-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) to get the opportunity and rates his chances of finishing Volkanovski higher than Evloev's.
"That's a more dangerous fight than Movsar Evloev," Johnson said on his PRECISION podcast with Israel Adesanya. "He goes for it: young, athletic, not scared. Silva could be a little bit upset that his boy (Mauricio Ruffy) is in Alexander Volkanovski's corner. He's like, 'You took my friend Ruffy from me, right, now I'm going to come take you and you Ruffy are f*cking next.' Jean's not going to be scared to try to take the fight and take a risk.
"Movsar Evloev, we know he's not taking any risks. He's going to take the least path of resistance. I like that. Then Aljamain Sterling, he's got a tough fight coming, and I know Aljo and Volkanovski have trained together, but if I had to pick one, I'm going to go with Jean Silva."
Silva, 29, is coming off a third-round submission win over Jose Delgado at Noche UFC in September. The Brazilian has won 15 of his past 16 fights overall, with his lone setback coming against Diego Lopes in September 2025.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Former champ says 'not scared' Jean Silva should get next UFC title shot