The Australian beat his Brazilian opponent by unanimous decision to reclaim his title on UFC 314 fight night in Miami as US President Trump watched along with Elon Musk. Alexander Volkanovski has reclaimed the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight championship after defeating Diego Lopes by unanimous decision at UFC 314 in Miami, where United States President Donald Trump was in attendance. Two judges scored the fight 49-46 and the third had it 48-47 as the Australian mixed martial arts fighter won the title early Sunday. Volkanovski (27-4) had successfully defended his belt four times before losing to Israel Makhachev on February 11, 2023. “It’s good to be back,” Volkanovski said after the win. As for Lopes, he gave his full respect to the champion but wanted the crowd to know this was not the end of the journey. “It was an honour to share the Octagon with Alexander Volkanovski,” Lopes said. “I’ll be back.” Trump, a longtime friend of UFC President and CEO Dana White, as well as a fan of the sport, watched from the front row. Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal approached Trump and shook his hand. Cabinet officials Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio and Robert F Kennedy Jr also were in attendance as was X owner and White House adviser Elon Musk. Volkanovski, despite getting cut below his right eye in the second and being floored by an overhand right in that round, dominated the first three rounds. But Lopes’s glove caught Volkanovski’s other eye in the fourth round and then pounced, but failed to put him away. That set up the fifth round and, barring a knockout, Volkanovski appeared on his way to victory even though Lopes spent much of the fight verbally challenging him and inviting him to box. Theatrics to the contrary, Volkanovski was the aggressor. Volkanovski had hoped to get another shot at Ilia Topuria and avenge his loss from more than a year ago at UFC 298. But Topuria moved up to the lightweight division, leaving the featherweight class vacant. In stepped Lopes, the third-ranked challenger, to take on Volkanovski. This was the 10th consecutive title fight for the 36-year-old top-ranked contender Volkanovski. Lopes, 30, was in his first title bout. Volkanovski ended Lopes’s five-match winning streak. Volkanovski had plenty of reasons for wanting to get to work. He took an extended layoff after losing in February 2024 to Topuria. More than that, he was coming off defeats in three of his past four fights, including losing the two most recent matches. All four fights occurred in less than a year, so he was much more rested. In the co-main event, lightweight contender Paddy Pimblett continued this rise with a technical knockout of Michael Chandler after three minutes and seven seconds in the third round. Plimbett, a 30-year-old from Liverpool, United Kingdom, has won all seven of his bouts since moving to the organisation, giving him a 23-3 record overall. “I want that world title,” Pimblett said. “Some say I’ll never be champ, I’ll never get run, I’ll never be in the top 10. But what now?” At nearly 39, Chandler has some decisions to make after winning just two of his most recent seven bouts. He is 23-10. Featherweight Bryce Mitchell, who fought for the first time since praising Adolf Hitler and denying the Holocaust on a podcast, was also on the card. He later backed off his comments, and though White heavily criticised Mitchell, he did not discipline him. Mitchell was little match for Jean Silva in their featherweight fight. Silva won by submission with a guillotine choke with a minute left in the second round. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

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Israel’s highest-ranking officer has a longstanding relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The incoming chief of staff of the Israeli army is retired Major-General Eyal Zamir, former director-general of the Defence Ministry, whose term begins on Wednesday. Zamir takes over from Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, who announced his resignation in January in anticipation of last week’s report into the military’s catastrophic failings during the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. The government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has refused to allow an investigation into its failings that day. Defence Minister Israel Katz, along with Netanyahu, picked Zamir for the role last month. He will command all Israeli military operations, including its deployments to Gaza, Syria and Lebanon. Quite a bit. Zamir has been considered for the role of chief of staff twice, but was passed over both times in favour of the outgoing Halevi and his predecessor, Aviv Kohavi. Originally conscripted into the military in 1984, Zamir progressed through the ranks from tank officer to commander of the 7th Armored Brigade in 2003 and the 36th Armored Division in 2009. Critically for his future success, he was Netanyahu’s military secretary from 2012 to 2015, then leader of Israel’s southern command for the next three years. In his final year in the southern command, Zamir’s troops “confronted” Palestinian protesters from Gaza taking part in the Great March of Return; they killed more than 150 protesters and wounded 10,000 others, including 1,849 children, 424 women, 115 paramedics and 115 journalists. In November 2018, Netanyahu promoted him to deputy chief of staff. Early in the protests, following the killing of 16 Palestinians during a single day in May, Zamir defended his actions, saying his forces had been “identifying attempts to carry out terror attacks under the camouflage of riots”. In 2021, he left the military and Israel, departing for the United States, where he was a visiting research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, returning to Israel in 2023 when he was appointed director-general of the Defence Ministry. He seems to like war. In the first speech following his appointment on March 1, Zamir said 2025 would “continue to be a year of combat”, despite Israel having agreed to ceasefires in the two wars it was waging – on Gaza and Lebanon. He said Israel needs to be self-sufficient, with no mention of the huge amounts of military aid it receives from the US. “We were all raised on the principle: ‘The State of Israel will defend itself by itself.’ Now, I am telling you that Israel will also produce its own weapons independently, in the face of any threat or scenario,” Zamir said. He has strident opinions on the need to confront Iran and other “opponents of Israel”. In 2007, he reportedly wrote in defence of the practice of “collective punishment” against what was described as “terrorist populations”. Collective punishment is illegal under international law. Unsurprisingly, Zamir’s appointment has been welcomed by some of the more hard-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet. Israel’s pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told members of his bloc earlier this month that, under Zamir’s leadership, Israel was preparing to occupy Gaza in coordination with US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu praised his appointment, saying “even when he served as my military secretary, I was impressed by Eyal Zamir’s commitment to the country”, his commitment to the army, as well as “the fact that his approach is geared toward offence”. “We expect that during his service … we will reach all these great achievements, which will change not only the situation of Israel but also the face of the entire Middle East,” Netanyahu, who agreed to the ceasefires and withdrawal agreements in Gaza and Lebanon, said. It may very well. Several senior members of the military and security apparatus have resigned, while others have had their promotions deferred over the failures of the October 7 attacks, creating a leadership vacuum at the top of the security forces, which Zamir and, by extension Netanyahu, will be able to shape to their own ends. In the long term, the position of army chief has also frequently led to further high-profile political careers. Some former prime ministers, including Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, served as chiefs of staff. In addition, former defence ministers, including Shaul Mofaz, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, had all previously held the position. Follow Al Jazeera English:...