Alexander Volkanovski still calls himself a regular bloke from Wollongong.
“A concreter he was,” UFC featherweight champion Volkanovski told the Herald. “Now he’s on top of the world.”
Quite literally. Because Volkanovski is the UFC’s newly minted pound-for-pound king, moving to No. 1 in the rankings after surpassing Kamaru Usman, who lost his welterweight title to Leon Edwards last month.
So, about that regular bloke thing?
Yeah, he still is. He just fights in sold-out arenas - and rankings suggest he does it better than anybody else in the world - and rolls around in an F-Type Jaguar. About the car?
“It’s second-hand,” Volkanovski said. “I don’t want a Lamborghini. I don’t need a Lamborghini. Can I buy one? Yeah, definitely, I can buy one. Can I really afford it? I’d rather look after my family and do what I need to do.”
Alex Volkanovski has his sights set on becoming a two-division champion.Credit: Getty Images
What he needs to do is win fights, something Volkanovski has done every time he has stepped inside a cage barring one defeat eight years ago.
He is unbeaten in his past 22 fights and is 12-0 in the UFC, a resume impressive enough to catapult the former Warilla Gorillas rugby league prop into the discussion as perhaps the greatest mixed martial artist of all time.
The featherweight champion now wants a shot at the lightweight title. Volkanovski has to bide his time, nursing a broken left hand suffered in the second round of his shutout win over Max Holloway in Las Vegas in July, while Charles Oliveira faces Islam Makhachev for the 155-pound belt.
Volkanovski could be back in December, but it is more likely to be early next year. That puts the 33-year-old in the box seat to headline the UFC’s return to Australia with either a lightweight title shot or a featherweight defence.
“I don’t need a challenge to keep me motivated because I’m disciplined, but challenges still get you up in the morning and makes it that little bit easier, right? For people that think it’s not achievable, they’d be crazy,” Volkanovski said of his plans to become the eighth two-division champion in UFC history.
“I can tell you right now, I plan on winning that belt, winning both belts and being active in both divisions. It would be incredible, it really would. It’s going to happen though, right? It’s not something I’m looking at thinking ‘I hope I get it’. We’re talking about it, UFC know I deserve it. We’ll make it happen.
“I want a challenge, I want people to try to tell me I can’t win. Moving up, they’re going to say that, and I’m going to prove them wrong again. I’m not only going to bring one belt back home to Australia, I’m going to bring two back home to Australia.
“I need to look after my family. They’re everything, mate. That’s why I talk about legacy. Why? I want success for my family, I want to feed my family, not only now but for the rest of my life, for the rest of their life. I need to make as much money as I can while I can. I’m not going to be in this sport forever. I want to be active, especially now I’m at my peak.”
You can’t help but appreciate the Alex Volkanovski story.Credit: Getty
A peak we almost never saw.
Volkanovski remembers the day he first set foot inside the Freestyle Fighting Gym, a small grey building set among weatherboard houses, a tattoo parlour, and a boat-hire yard. Someone asked why he was there, told him he’d get smashed. The future UFC star almost walked out.
“I could have easily turned around. Something was like ‘Don’t worry about him, just go in and sign up anyway’. I went in and signed up,” Volkanovski said.
“The next day I went in there and had to grapple with him. Underdog, right? I went in, all over him, never saw him in the gym again. Stand up for yourself.
“Even when I was playing rugby league, I was a front-rower, I’m five-foot-six. You could imagine I would have always had to stand up for myself. I would have always been underrated. I’ve always been the underdog. I thrive off that.
“There’s going to be a time where there ain’t going to be any doubters because I keep winning. That’s why we want challenges, because I love hearing people tell me ‘You can’t do this’.”
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