Alex Volkanovski goes from broke concreter to getting ready for UFC title challenge
Alex Volkanovski, not so long ago, was a broke concreter living in the spare room of mum’s house. Now he is set for a blockbuster UFC title bout in Brazil against one of the sport’s legends.
Alex Volkanovski, not so long ago, was a broke concreter living in the spare room of mum’s house.
With his wife, Emma. And baby Ariana.
The same little girl, you should know, he boldly declared would be born the daughter of a UFC fighter.
“Promised it the day we discovered Emma was pregnant,” Volkanovski recalls.
“Said that by the time our daughter was born, I’d be fighting in the UFC.”
But then those nine months, they came and went. Easily. All while Volkanovski was still throwing down at places like Albury, Melbourne, even Thirroul, for purses topping out in the hundreds.
A UFC wannabe who was living with mum, pouring concrete between workouts and, increasingly, the subject of much derision.
“Oh, Emma was hearing plenty,” Volkanovski says.
“People were continually asking her, ‘When is Alex giving up? When is he going to look after you?’
“These conversations, she had numerous times. With numerous people.
“Eventually, they were even had with me,” he said.
Must’ve hurt?
“It’s definitely tough when people don’t believe in you,” the fighter continues, before correcting: “Actually, that’s wrong. It’s not that they don’t believe in you. They just care. A lot.
“But all these people, they thought I was fighting for a hobby. I wasn’t.
“I’ve never been here to simply compete.”
And for proof, we arrive on Sunday at UFC 237, Brazil.
It’s where Volkanovski, the concreter who simply refused to quit, faces the legendary Jose Aldo in a showdown that, should he win, will catapult the Wollongong featherweight into a blockbuster UFC title bout.
That, and some real paydays.
“So this fight,” Volkanovski says, “it can make me a star overnight.”
Which is different, of course, to an overnight star.
Now aged 30 and with two daughters — Ariana, 3, and Airlie, 20 months — Volkanovski faces Aldo on an undefeated run stretching six years, 16 professionals fights and all six appearances inside the Octagon.
No small thing for a former Warilla Gorillas prop who, as recently as 2016, was still competing in events such as Wollongong Wars 4.
Yet after campaigning for two long years to get into the UFC, and then three more fighting inside it, this concreter — and a son of a concreter — is now headed into the biggest bout of his life.
“But I’ve always known I’m a fighter,” Volkanovski says.
“My dad’s Macedonian, mum Greek … so for as long as I can remember, my uncles have talked about our warrior blood.”
But his opponent on Sunday, well, he’s a warrior, too.
Indeed, by the time Volkanovski took his first fight at Sydney’s Roxy Hotel in May, 2012, Aldo was already UFC champion. And with three title defences.
Not only eight years and 22 fights into his professional career, but on a stunning run that would eventually see him go almost seven years as undefeated champ, too.
Which is why ton Sunday, the Brazilian will start a raging favourite with Las Vegas bookies.
Appropriately, Volkanovski is once more the underdog.
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