Alexander Volkanovski just put an exclamation point on his featherweight reign, knocking out Movsar Evloev in the second round at UFC 333, and he's already looking past the division he still rules.

Volkanovski's real preference is still a fight with Gaethje, but he made clear he's got backup plans he actually likes. Asked about those options, he put it simply: "That excites me."

The numbers back up why this fight would be a legitimate murderer's row matchup rather than a gift. Tsarukyan sits at number two in the lightweight rankings and is coming off a first round finish of Mauricio Ruffy, carrying an Elo rating of 1618 in our system built from his last six bouts. Gaethje, fresh off stopping Ilia Topuria in the fourth round, rates 1579. Volkanovski himself checks in at 1505 after his win over Evloev, who was ranked number one at featherweight and still graded out at 1597 despite the loss.

The other name floated is Aljamain Sterling, ranked fourth at featherweight, who's booked against Kevin Vallejos on November 21 and rates 1535 on our Elo.

None of this is official yet, it's Volkanovski laying out his own wish list, but a pound for pound great publicly weighing a belt vacancy to chase a title in a second division is the kind of thing that gets an entire division talking, and it already has. A thread on r/MMA is buzzing over exactly this scenario.