ALEXANDER VOLKANOVSKI returns to the octagon this weekend for the first time in over a year.
And he can make yet more UFC history if he gets his hand raised in his Miami melee with Diego Lopes.
The Aussie will bid to become a two-time ruler of the featherweight division early on Sunday morning in the .
His chances of regaining the 145lbs throne have been written off by many following his back-to-backand Ilia Topuria.
But an undefeated cage curse has also been at the forefront of many MMA fans' minds when picking the winner of this weekend's main event.
All fighters in the UFC's men's divisions below welterweight have LOST their title fights when competing aged 35 or above.
Sixteen have fought in title bouts in the fly, bantam, feather and lightweight divisions aged 35 and older.
All 16 of the combatants have failed to leave the octagon with UFC gold.
, 36, is already well acquainted with the championship curse which haunts the lower weight classes
He fell victim to it twice in the space of four months, thanks to his ill-fated lightweight title rematch with Makhachev and subsequent dethroning as 145lbs king at the hands of Topuria.
But he's relishing the opportunity to break the seemingly never-ending hoodoo and further cement his legacy as arguably the greatest featherweight of all-time.
He said: “Well, it is the greatest achievement. Just look at this. I've never been in this situation before, right?
“I've never come off such a big break. I've never come off two losses. So it's definitely the biggest fight [of my career].
“It really is the biggest fight of my career. And, you know everyone's going to go, ‘Oh yeah, like you've done enough.'
“But I haven't, I can do a lot more. And it starts this weekend, it starts on Saturday with this new title reign.
“When you talk about legacy, it doesn't get much bigger than this.
“The comeback is going to be real.
“This is the s**t, you know, people write books about movies about. [And] we're going to do it all on Saturday night.”
