Former UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski is confident in his skills, but thinks one attribute would separate him.
Volkanovski (26-4 MMA, 13-3 UFC) is coming off back-to-back knockout losses to UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, and featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.
Prior to that, Volkanovski had defended his featherweight title five times, and only lost once in the UFC – a razor-thin decision loss to Makhachev at UFC 284. Volkanovski doesn’t see himself being outmatched by anybody throughout an entire fight, so he’d pick an iron chin as the trait he’d take from another fighter.
“I mean Max (Holloway) had the chin, and I still think like that would still be a crazy chin, but I’d say yeah, chin, because that’s how I’ve always looked at it,” Volkanovski said on his YouTube channel. “This is how it’s always been for me going through my career. You always know that someone can catch you, that’s just the game. I’ve always said it’s going to be hard for somebody to actually beat me. I mean Islam had that very close fight, that first one.
“So there’s only very, very few, if any, that can take me to a decision and beat me that way. Obviously, you could say Islam did, it was a very close fight but I’ve always said that anyone can catch you, right? This is MMA, it’s a crazy sport. Anyone can catch you, but beating me is something different. If you could sit there and have the chin where you take away that only opportunity for someone to beat you, you’re going to be pretty hard to beat, that’s for sure.”
After suffering his second-straight knockout loss at UFC 298 in February, Volkanovski opted to take some time off. He’s hopeful his next fight will be for the featherweight title – whether a rematch with Topuria, or an interim title fight against a top contender.
