UFC 290: The twin changes that turned Volkanovski and Alcott into world beaters
‘The champs nobody wanted.’ There’s a fair few similarities between mates Alex Volkanovski and Dylan Alcott.
It took Alex Volkanovski years to become comfortable enough in his own skin to not care what people thought about him.
In an ironic twist, when he stopped worrying and started being true to himself, he became an even better fighter.
Dylan Alcott has seen that change in his mate, and knows exactly what the UFC featherweight champion is talking about.
It wasn’t until relatively recently that Volkanovski transformed from a fighter his manager described as the “champ nobody wanted” into a global superstar.
“It was tricky just to really be comfortable and confident that way,” Volkanovski said at this week’s UFC 290 press conference.
“Now I’m like, ‘Meh’ I do my thing and go through the motions. I’m experienced and just enjoy it.”
The 23-time Grand Slam champion Alcott, who is in Las Vegas this week working for Kayo Sports, can empathise.
“It took me 28 years to feel worthy of my disability, worthy of love. And I’m 32,” he said.
“So it took me a long time.“I pretended like it didn’t, but my insecurities about being different would come up at the worst moments, and I know it used to be (similar) for him.
“But he’s 100 percent authentic now.
“He doesn’t care what people think about him now. All he cares about is being a good person, a good family man, a good fighter, and a good Australian.
“And once you unlock that, what happens? You win everything.“And how cool is that, that he’s vulnerable enough to say that up there?”
Once Alcott unlocked that within himself, he says his performances and even his popularity went to another level.
And it’s the same for Volkanovski.
“I know when I said it, not only did Australia get behind me more, but I felt like a weight was taken off me so I could perform,” he said.
“He was an overweight rugby league player at one point, but has become this absolute machine.
“It was the same with me. It’s who thinks clearest out there that wins.”
A massive Illawarra Hawks fan, Volkanovski met Alcott while watching La Melo ball at an NBL game and the pair have remained close.
“I went up and said g’day, and whenever I won anything after that, he would message me to say congrats,” he said.
“(He was) always supporting what I do, and obviously I do the same with him.
“I love connecting with someone like that. Not only to pick their brain but just a good bloke.
“And I hope he wins, because I’m going to his after party!”
Fourth round knockout: Rodriguez ready to rock Volkanovski
Yair Rodriguez has had the same Eminem lyrics repeating in his head before each and every one of his 19 professional fights.
He began saying the mantra to himself 12 years ago as a nervous 18-year-old waiting to walk to the cage for his debut in front of 2500 people in his hometown of Hidalgo del Parral in northern Mexico.
And this weekend Rodriguez – who promises to break Australian hearts and cause a huge boil over by knocking out featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski at UFC 290 in Las Vegas – will have the same refrain rattling around his head.
“I was scared before walking out for my debut fight,” he tells this masthead. “I walked out to Lose Yourself by Eminem, and when he says, ‘this is your one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime’, I just said to myself, ‘what if this changes my life?’
“So I put this in my head and started walking out to the cage.”
In a sign of things to come in his high-octane career, Rodriguez won that fight with a flying scissor-kick in the first round.
And he’ll have the same mindset this weekend as a $4 underdog against the number two pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC.
“That one song is always going to be there for me,” he said. “Many people think I don’t stand a chance, but I’m going to prove everyone wrong.
“I see myself winning a fourth round TKO. I just know it’s going to be there. I have it in my head that it’s going to be there in the fourth round.”
Rodriguez owns some of the wildest knockouts ever seen in the UFC, including his 2019 stoppage of Jung Chan-sung with a bizarre elbow just one second before the end of their five-round epic.
A rangy and unorthodox striker with a background in Taekwondo, which he started as a five year old, Rodriguez has nothing but respect for Volkanovski, but that won’t stop him from head hunting the Australian champ.
“He (Volkanovski) has been amazing, and his record is impeccable,” he said. “He’s done a great job in the sport. I look up to him, I learn from him, and I think he’s a great fighter.
“But we’re both here looking for the same shit.
“It’s basically a 50-50 sport, there’s only two of you and one person’s going to win and one person’s going to lose.”
One of just three Mexican UFC champions, alongside Brandon Moreno and Alexa Grasso, Rodriguez is at the forefront of a surge in popularity for the sport in his home country, which he says will become as popular as football and boxing in a decade.
“I go out there and represent my country and my culture and my family every time I fight,” he said. “There’s always many bigger things – my friends, my family and myself as a martial artist.
“I represent the sport as well in Mexico, I’m going to go out there and shock a lot of people this weekend.”
Injury-hit Demons stun Crows in Norwood thriller
Struck down by a host of injuries across their team, the Dees have managed to keep their AFLW season alive by pulling off a thrilling victory over the Crows.
AFLW Agenda: Thank you Maddy, you’re more than enough
From a stirring celebration pointed at keyboard cowards to the rapid rise of a young gun, ELIZA REILLY runs through the hits and misses from Week 6 in the AFLW Agenda.