There are quite a few hard and fast rules surrounding mixed martial arts. It is one of the selling points of the sport. Although a bunch of conditions – no tampering. Do not pluck the hair, do not kick the opponent down; Do not catch fish with an open wound – everything is going well. There are still some general rules. Among them: If, in the middle of a fight, you ask your opponent if he really wants to continue, odds are good that you’re on your way to winning.
That’s how I went to Alexander Volkanovsky last Saturday night in Jacksonville. The UFC 273 leader, the 33-year-old Australian featherweight managed such a brutal beating that he asked his opponent, Jung Chan-sung of South Korea (a/k/a The Korean Zombie), if he’d like to continue. zombie act. But the referee, Herb Dean, thought otherwise, mercifully taking Volkanovsky off his prey and eliminating the fight early in the fourth round.
However, Volkanovsky did not defend his featherweight belt for the third time. He didn’t just get out of another battle unscathed, extending his winning streak to 21 battles spanning nine years. Volkanovsky shook the balance of power in the UFC. After his section is cleaned out, his weight will likely rise to 155 pounds. for a man who weighed 214 lbs. As a semi-professional Australian rugby player, the extra weight should not be an issue.
Two days after his last win, Volkanovsky woke up before sunrise to speak with Sports Illustrated. (Slightly modified for clarity and brevity.)
SI: You look good for a guy who had a fight two days ago.
from: Not too bad. Not much caught. My hands and feet are very sore though.
SI: What about emotionally? How long does it take you to get off the highest levels of existence out there?
from: Too fast to be honest. I almost forgot about it the next day. It’s up to me instantly. It might sound a little boring but that’s what it is. It’s like, even when I go into combat, I maintain a high level of calm. It works well on the roads. Sometimes you don’t appreciate what you’ve done because you’re pretty much over it right away. Back to normal.
SI: That sounds very Australian.
from: Yes that may be. I think you are on the money. “Whatever, my friend,” is the attitude. But I’m not the type to gloat about things. It’s like the “long poppy” we have in Australia. I do it myself sometimes. I would probably change that if I could.
SI: Why?
from: At the end of the day you should be celebrating yourself, you should be pumping. You have done what you want to do. Bring that money home and that win and bring that belt to your family. I think chatting with you helps me celebrate.
SI: Here to help. Your religion is just enough. Go and take the victory tour.
from: okay then.
Go to follow
SI: We talk a lot about the feelings of being in close combat and at war. How about the opposite? What are the feelings when it’s all one-way, and you’re on your way with the guy?
from: It’s weird because I still have work to do. You are talking about the task at hand. Even though things are going well, you still have a guy trying to take his head off of you. This helps me not get too excited and let emotions take over. This is when you make mistakes. It has its pros and cons [the calm] But it lets me do what I need to do.
SI: Does empathy creep in?
from: for sure. Especially in the last one, a lot. To be honest, in the third round, I saw him not get away with it right away. Doesn’t look very good. I thought he looked defeated. I think he felt defeated too and I can see that. So I started to feel bad. I even told him in the fourth round, the fourth round has started – you can already see the tape – I said to him, I’m going “Do you really want to keep doing this? Are you confident?”
I don’t know if he understood me or not, but you know, I’m sure I would have said the same thing, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” I obviously went to the end and pulled it off, but you’re starting to feel like it. It is a legend. But, yeah, I definitely feel something there.
SI: What do you think you weigh this morning?
from: 75 kg or something. Yes, 74-75 kg.
SI: 165 or so?
from: Yes, I’m usually a little heavier because I didn’t eat much after the fight.
SI: I’m sure you’ve answered this a lot in Australia. But how did you go from – Whatever you’re playing rugby –
from: 214 pounds! Yes, it took time. Just dieting and dieting and you know I slowly made my way down the splits. So it was medium weight, then medium weight. It wasn’t something that happened overnight. I talk about the drive I have in everything I do. If I had to make a medium weight, I would make a medium weight. If I had to make a medium weight, I would make a medium weight. So just discipline and diet and all of that frustrated me.
Alexander Volkanovsky.
David Yeisel USA Today Sports
SI: What was the most important thing you had to give up?
from: Lots of bread. I loved baking with all my dinners. I was going to have a big dinner and I was going to make four to six pieces of bread with it. I loved those days. But I’m glad I don’t eat all that.
SI: What is your relationship with rugby now? Are you still tracking?
from: Rugby league. Yeah, yeah, I’m still watching. In fact, I do some wrestling for the local Illawarra Dragons team. So since I did that, I’ve already made contact within this world again.
SI: Did you miss it?
from: Ah, not really, because I’ve been wrestling with some of these guys and they are absolute beasts, putting massive blows on each other. Like oh, I’m glad I don’t do this anymore. But I’m sure when they watch us fight and punch each other in the face, they say the same thing too.
SI: I’m curious about the team versus the individual. Do you miss camaraderie? Did you miss the trips? Do you like being your own boss?
from: Well man, I have a little bit of both, right? So I still have a team. But at the same time, there’s one thing I love about, you know, MMA – it’s like it’s all on me, you know? My team can’t let me down. It’s all on me. If you put in the work, I’ll get the job done. I’ve always been like this. There were matches where I could have the best match of my life and still lose. You know, because the team didn’t do its part. No, I mean on the contrary – I could let them down.
But I’m not usually the type to not have sex with anything. Go all outside. I don’t usually let myself down because I know I always prepare and put the work into it. This is the kind of man I am now. This is what got me to where I am now. I disciplined and got a work ethic.
SI: What is the source of that?
from: Maybe just, well, how did you grow up. Maybe my upbringing.
SI: How did you grow up?
from: I mean European background. My parents work hard. Watching them as you grow learn from what you see, right? I wouldn’t say I was alone, but I think there are a lot of times when you cook dinner yourself, you have to go to school and all of that stuff at a very young age. [because] They were at work trying to earn money to put food on the table. So I had to raise myself very young and not mean it in a bad way.
They were wonderful to us. Great parents, but no one worked their hardest, so they couldn’t be there all the time. So I feel independence played a big role. And the blood of the warrior we are talking about – Macedonian and Greek.
You know, that’s why I feel like a good cook. Because I cook my own dinners at a very young age. I used to make my own breakfast and lunch for school and all that kind of stuff.
SI: What’s your dish?
from: I must say Pho. Foo Beef. I love my vietnamese soup. I love him. My trainer and I have traveled the world, and we didn’t regret eating Pho.
SI: I wasn’t expecting that. What did your family do?
from: My father was a concrete worker. We started restaurants too. Like a chip shop or like a pizza shop and all that, so I used to be a concrete worker too.
SI: And you worked with him for a bit?
from: Yes, I was pouring concrete. Even when I was early in MMA, I was making concrete. I would like to train in [rugby] That week I was going to be training MMA. All at once. It shows you this kind of work ethic.
SI: We’re coming on our 9th anniversary – it’s been a long time – since I lost a fight. What are your memories of that? I mean, what do you take from that long ago as it was?
from: It was a long time ago. You know, I was talking about him that day. The problem with MMA is that I started late, I started at 22, so I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do. I wanted to get the best players out so I could take their place. Move up as fast as you can, so I was like that from the start, so all the fights were tough. I accepted any fight, whatever, uh, anyone. And then even some good guys. I’m like, I know he’s a guy but I’m the guy.
I mean it went well, but obviously I got the loss. And I learned from that and it made me realize, well, maybe this split isn’t right for me anyway because it’s twice my size. That’s when I started going down. But you learn a lot from your losses. But you learn a lot from your wins, too. Many people think – you just need to learn your losses, but this is not true. You know a lot to win. You are still being beaten. I still make mistakes. There weren’t many mistakes made a couple of nights ago. But there are still things I can take from there. There are still times when something else might have been profitable. It doesn’t have to be a loss to learn.
SI: I’m tired of asking you what next?
from: No, no, I expect that. I don’t mind hearing the comments either, like what a lot of people think is next. But I am now in a position where we have some options. We’ll see with the UFC show us; We’ll see what division does. I’d love to get back out there, so I need to start figuring that out soon, but light splitting, it’s definitely something I’m focused on. …Yes, I think I am in a position where I at least deserve to be called that.
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