Featherweight is the division of great UFC champions.

Jose Aldo. Conor McGregor. Max Holloway. Alexander Volkanovski. Ilia Topuria.

That’s it. The belt infrequently changes hands, and when it does, the new champion goes on to establish himself as one of the very best in the world at a minimum. Seriously, Conor McGregor is the weakest name on that list in terms of career accomplishment, and he was one of the most special fighters to ever live while on the 145-pound roster.

After UFC 333, however, there’s no argument that Volkanovski stands alone … which hurts to admit as a Jose Aldo truther.

Two years ago, Volkanovski’s championship career was over. The simple facts were looming large for “The Great.” Not only had he lost three of his last four fights, but the two men to defeat him three times were the pair of champions in the two possible divisions in which Volkanovski competes. There was no path back to gold, and Volkanovski lost consecutive fights via knockout.

Retirement would’ve been a completely reasonable play.

Instead, fortune favored Volkanovski, and luck plays a role in the career of every fighter. Volkanovski could not control Topuria or Islam Makhachev, but both men opted to move up a division. Suddenly, the road back to Featherweight gold was … well, not exactly clear, but at least possible. And so Volkanovski denied every statistic in the book about age and champions to outclass Diego Lopes — bigger, more powerful, and seven years younger — not once but twice.

Lopes simply didn’t have the depth of skill to keep up with the crafty veteran.

Last night, Volkanovski proved he’s not just a bad style matchup for Lopes but No. 1-ranked Movsar Evloev as well. A lot of us remembered Volkanovski’s tremendous first anti-wrestling performance (in defeat) against Makhachev and expected Evloev to have a hell of a time, and those predictions were justified. The Australian didn’t struggle particularly hard to deny, escape, and/or reverse Evloev’s takedowns, and this is an undefeated fighter who has wrestled every opponent he’s ever faced.

Does Evloev being a favorable stylistic matchup for Volkanovski diminish Volkanovski’s accomplishment? Absolutely not! Evloev is an awful matchup for many great fighters, including some of those aforementioned past champions. Furthermore, Volkanovski tends to be a really bad style matchup for most opponents because he’s just that damn good, so deeply skilled that he wins dominantly in all sorts of fashions and make great opponents look limited.

Volkanovski’s second championship reign has left him undeniable. There is no longer a question of whether Volkanovski is the greatest 145-pound fighter of all time. Instead, he should now be featured prominently in conversations with the likes of Jon Jones and Georges St. Pierre in the all-time lists.

For him to achieve such heights after brutal knockout losses makes him both unique and especially admirable.