Alexander Volkanovski has admitted that the turnaround between his knockout loss to Islam Makhachev and his fight with Ilia Topuria may have been too quick.
We all know that Alexander Volkanovski is the people's champion. He's also, as of this writing, the UFC featherweight champion. However, his first reign with the title came to an end in devastating fashion after he was knocked out cold by Ilia Topuria.
That defeat came just a matter of months after the suffered the same fate at the hands of Islam Makhachev. In a recent podcast appearance, Alexander Volkanovski opened up about the circumstances surrounding those two defeats.
Alexander Volkanovski’s take on Ilia Topuria defeat
“I go in too early and I get knocked out, I lose my belt,” Volkanovski said on The Unscripted Show, pointing out the difference between injuries in combat sports and in team sports. “That’s the fact and that’s what happened. I’m not taking anything away from Ilia. I’m just saying that that’s what can happen. So I got a crazy shin to the noggin and obviously Ilia can hit hard, we’ve seen that, but I mean, I’ve never been just completely lights out like that. I was lights out for a couple of minutes.
“He got me in the cheek. But as soon there was one good connection: snoring.”
“So am I saying that wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t have the Islam [knockout loss]? I don’t know,” Volkanovski said. “Again, [Topuria’s] very capable of knocking me out. Like I said, if I’m ever going to lose, it’s someone catching me and he’s a guy that can definitely do it. A lot of people were like, ‘You were winning until you got caught.’ Yeah, that was the case, but I still wasn’t fighting my fight.”
“I was worried about getting hit and I was freaking out in there and I remember sitting there, I was in two minds. Try not to get hit but then telling myself, ‘You’re alright. You’ll come back to it. Relax.’ If I was that worried, then why didn’t I just shoot and be more defensive and just take him down and just hold him there, but then I would tell myself, ‘You don’t need to do that. You’re alright.’ … It was a tricky one. It was a tough one for me.
“You’ve seen this footage of me sort of breaking down and not knowing what I’m—If I’m like this now, how am I going to be after the sport’s done?” Volkanovski said. “That’s what I was worried about. Then I was like I need to keep busy. Told the UFC I want to fight. I end up fighting just after three months later with a bad concussion. Most people have six months, no head contact, and then start camp. I started training, when you’re training you’re starting head contact pretty quickly.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting