Previous UFC featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski states that things will be various if and when he gets a 2nd fracture at Ilia Topuria.
The Georgian-Spaniard scored a spectacular second-round KO surface of the Australian at their UFC 298 clash in February, ending up being the very first 145-pound fighter to ever score a success versus a fighter thought about to be the department’s pacesetter for the previous a number of years.
The 27-year-old’s title win was available in the echo of reports in journalism at the time which highlighted a pattern in UFC title battles from 170-pounds and listed below which recommended that fighters of Volkanovski’s vintage (he’s 35) have reducing returns in title bouts versus more youthful opposition.
Regardless of that stat showing real (on this celebration, at least), Volkanovski is determined that their still-hypothetical rematch will produce a various outcome.
“Ilia is an excellent fighter– let’s see due to the fact that the next Volkanovski is going to show up,” the previous champ informed AllStar, as kept in mind by MMA Junkie.
“The genuine Volkanovski, I ensure you that, and let’s see if Ilia can deal with that. Once again, I’m not taking anything far from him, I’m not stating he can’t. He’s certainly got heavy hands. He’s clearly got excellent ability, however I desire him to be evaluated versus the very best variation of myself or all the leading guys and actually show himself.”
Their February battle came simply 4 months after Volkanovski sustained another KO defeat, this time in a brief notification light-weight title bout versus Islam Makhachev in a rematch of their exhilarating five-round choice the previous February.
And Volkanovski stated that the variation of himself that pertained to the cage versus Topuria was abnormally reluctant, maybe as an outcome of how previous battles decreased.
“You’re not visiting a shy Volk,” he stated. “You’re visiting a Volk that combats his battle. You wish to be put in front of me and put yourself in a position to land bombs, be all set for one coming directly back at you.”
The Australian will likely need to await vengeance versus Topuria till the brand-new champ’s proposed face-off with Max Holloway reaches a conclusion. Till them, he states he enjoys to eliminate somebody else– however just in the light-weight department.
“You discover me an amazing battle, perhaps in the light-weight department or something, like that that’s enjoyable, possibly since I will not wish to wait too long,” he described. “Maybe we might put something out there, however my next featherweight battle is for the belt. Undoubtedly you had a couple of individuals call me out, which credit to them. Think me: I’m not in that position where I require to battle any person else however the champ.”
