UFC 266: Inside Alex Volkanovski’s Covid battle and the incredibly difficult rebuild
For the first time since his Covid battle, we go inside the team of experts who rebuilt Australia’s UFC featherweight champ, Alex Volkanovski, ahead of UFC 266.
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Alex Volkanovski had barely stopped coughing blood when the rebuild began.
But as for how much of him Covid had taken?
Nobody knew.
Yet what we can tell you is that on his first day back in a gym, this most energised of UFC champions — a fighter whose entire being is built on going harder, for longer, than the other guy — sat on a stationary bike and peddled for just five minutes.
“And that was it,” says Dr Duncan French.
“Because Alex’s case, it was challenging. With his Covid symptoms among the most severe we’d seen.
“So before anything else, we needed to determine exactly how far he had fallen.”
UFC 266: Volkanovski v Ortega on September 26,click here to order on Foxtel or Kayo
Speaking now from his office inside the UFC Performance Institute — a $20 million sports science wonderland sat just off the Las Vegas strip — Dr French is opening up on the incredible rebuild of Australia’s No. 1 fighter.
A UFC featherweight champ who is not only defending against American Brian Ortega at UFC 266 this Sunday, but will do so via a game built around volume, relentlessness and that famed gas tank fuelling endless swirl of camouflaged attacks.
Yet last March?
The champ had lost almost half, they say, of all that makes him great.
The result of Volkanovski having not simply contracted coronavirus so badly he was suffering headaches, fevers, even body aches, but by day three then struggling to breath while coughing up blood.
Already in Las Vegas for what was supposed to be a UFC 260 showdown with Ortega, Volkanovski was instead hospitalised as his Covid diagnosis was then joined by pneumonia, which quickly spread to his lungs.
Somewhere in all of which, Dr French’s phone rang.
With UFC executives urging their VP of Performance to immediately mobilise a support team.
“Because while we’d already had fighters contract Covid,” he continues, “none were like Alex.”
So while he may be largely unknown to Aussie fight fans, Dr French can today be outed as the man who — along with a team of doctors, sports scientists, nutrionists and conditioning coaches — effectively rebuilt the UFC featherweight champ.
Born and raised in the north of England, Dr French has not only worked with Newcastle United in the English Premier League, or the Great Britain Olympic team, but Notre Dame University, Australia’s Rugby Sevens teams when Stateside and now that most famous of Warilla Gorillas.
A partnership beginning within hours of Volkanovski falling ill too, when Dr French quickly co-ordinated a team for what, initially, was a rebuild covered in more question marks than The Riddler.
During Volkanovski’s five days in hospital, it was Dr Jeff Davidson, the UFC chief medical officer, who oversaw the recovery.
“And even then, when Alex was in a really challenging place, he remained upbeat,” Dr French says.
Once released, the champ arrived at the UFC PI for a battery of tests by Dr Roman Fomin, Director of Sports Science, before then starting work with Dr Heather Linden, Director of Physical Therapy.
So as for how far the champ had fallen?
“Initially, we asked Alex for five minutes effort on the bike,” Dr French recalls. “Or one round.”
Importantly, the UFC team was also making phone calls.
Not only to Volkanovski’s exercise physiologists back home at the BaiMed Performance Centre in Wollongong, but also to colleagues in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball.
“Because we’d heard about athletes struggling for weeks, even months after contracting Covid,” the doctor continues. “And we didn’t want that for Alex.”
Which meant, as part of the mission to rebuild one of the fight game’s most notorious gas tanks, Volkanovski initially spent three weeks progressing from bike, to rower, then light padwork sessions.
Eventually, the BaidMed team also sent over a personalised strength program, too. But again, it was so limited that every session included only four key lifts.
Then after a month, it was decided Volkanovski would stay in Las Vegas to appear on The Ultimate Fighter, which saw him continue at the PI with an expanded team which now included even nutrionists working through supplements to repair lung tissue.
“And with Alex always wanting to go so hard,” says Dr French, “that at times we had to pull the horses back”.
Yet by the time Volkanovski finally returned to Australia in July, the BaiMed team say he was back to full strength.
Which according to Dr French, says as much about his own team as the man fighting Sunday.
“Because that super high energy Alex fights with, it’s also his personality,” he says.
Same deal, the doc says, his warrior spirit.
“Which is endemic in all UFC fighters,” he says. “But a guy like Volk, he really does take it to another level again.”
Volkanovski explodes at ‘F***ing drug cheat’ Ortega
A furious Alexander Volkanovski has branded UFC rival Brian Ortega a “f … ing drug cheat” and offered to fight him in the hotel elevator during a heated stare down on the eve of their UFC 266 headliner in Las Vegas.
After initially enjoying several slanging matches during an entertaining press conference, the pair then doubled down during the face off, with Ortega appearing to challenge Volkanovski to a fight outside the Octagon.
“Huh?” Volkanovski responded, as UFC president Dana White held the pair apart.
“Don’t go on with that elevator, we’ll fight in the elevator and all that bulls …. I’ll fight you anywhere too, but the beauty of it is we get to fight Sunday”.
The champ also took a shot at Ortega for testing positive to the steroid drostanolone in 2014, which saw the California Athletic Commission suspend the LA fighter for nine months and fine him $2,500.
“I didn’t know you popped,” Volkanovski shouted. “And that s … don’t sit well with me.
“You don’t deserve to be here. You’re a f … ing drug cheat.”
Elsewhere during in the heated stare down, Volkanovski also shouted towards the challenger “you ain’t taking the belt from me, you don’t deserve it” and “I ain’t scared of your s … brother I’m telling you”.
No love lost between these two. 💢@AlexVolkanovski takes on @BrianTCity Saturday.
— UFC (@ufc) September 23, 2021
[ #UFC266 | Sep 25 | Live on ESPN+ PPV: https://t.co/2qE0lEWxD2 ] pic.twitter.com/P93YQNwLO7
Speaking with The Daily Telegraph earlier this week, Ortega suggested Volkanovski had upped the trash talk in Fight Week in a bid to try and throw him off a game renowned for its poise and calmness.
Yet the beef certainly seemed real enough when, with the press conference less than a couple of minutes old, the war of words was again reignited after a US journalist asked Volkanovski what he thought about Ortega having said this week in an interview that the pair could actually be friends?
“To be honest, I’d have to be pretty drunk to get on with him,” the Aussie replied.
“Obviously I’m known for being respectful.
“But there are things that annoy me. And every word that comes out of his mouth annoys me. So probably not.”
Later, the champ also took more shots at Ortega regarding their time in The Ultimate Fighter.
“When he’s with his boys or when he’s up, he is puffing his chest,” the champ said. “But as soon as things went against him, he was quiet. He didn’t have much to say.
“I told him to keep the same energy. He didn’t.
“So I see a lot of holes. Every time I spend time with him I see weakness.”
Volkanovski added later: “I’ve put in the hard yards my whole life.
“He half arses it.
“I mean, a few years back he pops for juicing, s … like that. That s … annoys me. It’s not professional and I ain’t about it.”
Speaking with MMA Junkie in 2018, Ortega said of his positive drug test: “I’ll let people hate on me for whatever reason.
“For me it was something, I admitted – or, I publicly talked about it and said, ‘Yes, I did take something.’
“I’ve never took nothing else like injectables or anything like that. It was an oral thing to make you cut weight. It’s almost Hydroxycut in a way.
“Or like fen-phen – remember that? I took that in order to help my weight cut, which every fighter hates weight-cutting. But I never excused no matter what it is that I took. I took full responsibility for what is it, what I did, and I did my punishment. I paid my time, and I continue with my life as anyone else does.”
WAR OF WORDS ERUPTS OVER SLAP WHICH ROCKED UFC
Brian Ortega doesn’t want to talk about the night he slapped a Korean pop star.
Isn’t proud of it, he says.
Just as he has little interest in reliving it.
But as for UFC featherweight champ Alex Volkanovski?
Different story, apparently.
On the eve of his hyped UFC 266 title fight with Volkanovski in Las Vegas, Ortega has accused the Australian of trying to bait, sledge and generally annoy him into changing up a fight game renowned for its calmness and poise.
All of it too, Ortega says, because of that slap.
One which occurred back in March last year when the Californian, seated cageside for a UFC 248 title fight between Israel Adesanya and Yoel Romero, surprisingly slapped K Pop star Jay Park — who was himself watching the main event from only a couple of seats away.
Apparently, the strike was in retaliation to something Park had said about Ortega weeks earlier, while working as an interpreter for fellow UFC featherweight contender Chan Sung Jung, aka The Korean Zombie.
While the incident was brief, and something Ortega still regrets, he also knows that watching on from seats right in front of him, and also present as a guest, was UFC featherweight champ Volkanovski.
That Wollongong striker who, for the best part of a year, has been caught in a growing war of words with Ortega which, including their time as rival coaches on The Ultimate Fighter, has seen him brand the American a princess, pansy, fake, disrespectful, even a guy with low fight IQ.
Then again at a UFC open media day on Thursday, Volkanovski continued the tirade, blasting Ortega for being fake, surrounded by “yes men” and continually late during TUF filming while “doing his f … ing make up or hair, who knows?”
“But I see through his bulls…,” the champ said.
Yet speaking with The Daily Telegraph this week from his Las Vegas camp, Ortega revealed that rather than the pair having real beef, Volkanovski was simply trying to get into his head after what he witnessed with the Park slap.
Given Ortega is a fighter who has long been renowned for his calm, relaxed demeanour in the cage, he now believes the Aussie is trying to make things personal in the hope he will fight on emotion in the headliner, and therefore be less composed.
“I think it’s all based off that one incident (with Jay Park),” Ortega said when quizzed on the champ’s needling.
“Back when I got a little, ahh, carried away with someone.
“And I don’t want to talk about it too much. I’ve told myself I wouldn’t.
“But that night, I got upset and had physical contact with a certain individual. And because of that, there are now people who now think I can be provoked.
“Is it true? No.
“But I think he (Volkanovski) is trying to push those same buttons.”
So the sledging is part of Volkanovski’s fight plan?
“All I know is this, I’ve never been first to throw a dig,” continued Ortega, who also went and beat The Korean Zombie in his most recent outing.
“On the show, in interviews since, he always throws the first dig.
“And that’s put me in a weird situation because I’m not one to get into talk.
“If you really have a problem with me, then we have problems. But that never seemed to be the case when we were standing right next to each other during filming.”
Elsewhere, Ortega also laughed off claims from Volkanovski that, during their time in The Ultimate Fighter, the American had it written into his contract that nobody could touch his personal stuff for pranks.
The Aussie made the claim after being told he couldn’t take Ortega’s car keys, only days after the challenger had removed all the wheels from a hire car being used by Team Volkanovski.
“But brother, let me tell you something, I’m a fighter not a lawyer,” he said. “I don’t know how to do contracts.
“So I have no idea what that was.
“After two hours doing interviews one day, someone said to me ‘hey man, Volkanovski saw your car keys and wanted to take your car.
“I said ‘what the f …? What happened?’
“And if he had taken my car, fine. Just don’t damage it.
“Because my car, that’s paid with money I got punched in the face for.
“So you can take it, drive it, go off-roading in it, I would’ve told him ‘good one mother … er’.
“But the producers said they wouldn’t let him because it’s my car. Not a rental.
“So I never cried to anyone. I think he just got upset because he had an idea and wasn’t allowed do it.”
THE ‘CRAZY’ REASON UFC BLANKED AUSSIE STAR
Alex Volkanovski was once deemed too boring for the UFC.
Or as his coach Joe Lopez remembers it, “lacking crazy”.
Although not as a fighter.
No way back nine years ago, when UFC boss Dana White first brought The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series to Australia, Volkanovski was among some 100 local fighters who auditioned to take on the best of Great Britain in a tournament dubbed, wonderfully, The Smashes.
Better, he seemed in.
Which was no small thing considering the then Wollongong concreter boasted just one professional fight.
UFC 266: Volkanovski v Ortega on September 26,click here to order on Foxtel or Kayo
That, and was auditioning at welterweight – or two divisions, and some 11 kilos, heavier than where he now reigns as UFC featherweight king.
Yet after initially sweating through a series of workouts involving striking, grappling and wrestling, Volkanovski was then among a small group hand-picked by UFC matchmaker Joe Silva for a second, and final round of auditions.
All of which seemed the most incredible of rises for this fight rookie.
Or at least until somebody handed Volkanovski a microphone.
“All of the fighters considered UFC material, they went to a second round of auditions with TUF production staff,” Lopez recalls. “Just to see how they spoke, interviewed.
“And obviously, they wanted fighters who were outrageous, a little crazy …”
But Volk?
“Too shy,” the coach cackles. “These days, mate, every interview goes an hour.
“But back then? No.”
So what happened in front of that camera?
“They asked him questions,” Lopez grins. “And Alex went ‘aahhh …’.”
So Volkanovski, he got brushed.
Left to watch on TV as the series was eventually won by some anonymous CityRail electrician named Robert Whittaker.
Which as we now know, become some fight story itself.
Yet almost 10 years after being told he was too boring for the UFC, Volkanovski is now looking to create Australian sports history when he defends against American Brian Ortega at UFC 266 in Las Vegas this Sunday.
With a win seeing him become not only the first Aussie to go undefeated for 10 straight inside the Octagon, but defend a UFC title twice.
Better, the champ gets his crack at Ortega.
That Californian native Volkanovski has already opposed this year, and grown to dislike, when paired as rival coaches for that ongoing reality TV series named … no prizes for guessing … The Ultimate Fighter.
Which is more than a little ironic, right?
“It’s all pretty funny, yeah,” Volkanovski says. “Especially because these days, I love a camera.
“But back in the day, I wasn’t much good.
“Although I’ve long been a believer that everything happens for a reason.”
While Whittaker would eventually win the welterweight final of TUF: Smashes – the start of a career that also saw him become Australia’s first UFC champion — Volkanovski was left to toil another four years on the local fight scene before eventually getting his own Octagon debut.
So as for how the now featherweight champ would have gone on TUF: Smashes?
“I would’ve held my own, I’m telling you,” Volkanovski insists. “But even if I’d done OK, where would I be now?
“When TUF came to Australia, I definitely wasn’t ready for the UFC. And I was also fighting at welterweight, a division I should never have been in.
“So even if got through to the UFC, what happens if I don’t perform? Who knows if I would’ve got another chance?”
Instead, Volkanovski went away with Lopez and worked. Not only on his fighting, either.
“We started our own media training,” the coach reveals.
“Every few weeks after training, I’d get a camera out and start asking Alex questions.
“Initially, there was lots of laughing. And Alex saying he didn’t like it.
“I just wish I knew where that footage was now.”
VOLKANOVSKI: I’M GOING TO SEND ORTEGA VIRAL AT UFC 266
Alexander Volkanovski has promised to send American Brian Ortega viral at UFC 266, declaring: “Winning isn’t enough … I want one of those crazy moments that end up doing the rounds on social media”
Currently bunkered down in Las Vegas, where he defends his UFC featherweight title this Sunday, Volkanovski is quietly putting the finishing touches on what he believes will be the most spectacular win of his undefeated UFC career.
More than simply beating Ortega this weekend, more than becoming the first Australian to defend a UFC strap twice, or take his current undefeated run to 20 fights – including all 10 inside the Octagon – the champ wants a moment.
Think, say, Anderson Silva landing his famed Spider kick. Or Dan Henderson, that ‘H Bomb’.
Throw in too Chuck Liddell pounding Tito Ortiz, Jorge Masvidal kneeing Ben Askren cold and Conor McGregor unleashing those 13 seconds of mayhem to end Jose Aldo, aka the King of the Favelas.
While Volkanovski has not dropped a fight in his run to the UFC title – that, and the No. 4 spot in overall pound-pound rankings — six of his nine wins have gone to decision.
Most recently too, the Aussie retained his belt via a controversial a split decision win over Hawaiian Max Holloway, the same man he took the gold strap from in 2019.
In both fights against Holloway, there were plenty who thought Volkanovski was beat. Particularly at UFC 251 last July, when even UFC president Dana White said afterwards the judges got the split decision wrong.
All of which is now fuelling the champ.
“I’ve already proved I’m the best featherweight in the world,” Volkanovski said this week. “But as you can see, sometimes that’s not enough.
“And don’t get me wrong, there are a shitload of people out there who do understand my skills.
“Who understand I’m levels ahead of most guys in this division.
“But there are others who are drawn only to the crazy moments. The highlight reel finishes.
“And so I want to capture those casual fans who are just looking for violence.
“Because we’re in the entertainment business.
“I understand that.
“So winning isn’t enough this weekend.
“I want to go out there against Brian Ortega and make a statement.”
Asked why a finish was so important, Volkanovski continued: “Let’s be real, winning is great but performances are what people remember.
“Highlight reel finishes.
“Those crazy moments that end up doing the rounds on social media.
“You’ve heard guys like Jon Jones talk about it — that it isn’t so much about winning as how you win.
“Winning isn’t enough.
“You can mop the floor with someone over five rounds, but it’s the guy who get the big finish people remember.
“So once Ortega is tired, I’m going to take advantage of that.”
Quizzed on a prediction, Volkanovski said he planned to stop Ortega in the third.
“I’m going to get the guy tired, then crumble him,” the champ continued. “There are too many rounds for him to survive this.
“Obviously Ortega, he’s a durable guy. And while he is fresh, with jiu jitsu being his game, early on he will be harder to submit.
“So then you’ve got the knockout, but he is durable too. Has a decent chin.
“But once I start fatiguing him, causing him to crumble … mate, that’s when the opportunities will be endless.
“So I’m feeling the third round.”
Asked if the now signature fight style he has perfected with coach Joe Lopez would need to change to find a finish, Volkanosvki said: “No, I wouldn’t say that.
“I’m still going to be calculated.
“Just because I want a finish, I’m not going to stand there, toe-to-toe, with my chin up in the air and swinging.
“I’m too clever for that.
“And early on, Ortega won’t have cooked. So I’ll need to be careful.
“But after a while, you’re going to see him slow down. Second guessing himself. And that’s when I’m going to go.”
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