BASH AND GRAB
A COURAGEOUS Alexander Volkanovski has laughed off social media taunts of “theft” after twice being dropped and still coming back to win his blockbuster UFC 251 title bout against Hawaiian great Max Holloway.
In a performance that confirmed Volkanovski as the new face of the Australian fight game, the 31-yearold scored a gutsy, if contentious, split-decision win in his first title defence in Abu Dhabi.
Six months after dethroning Holloway in one of the greatest Aussie sporting upsets of 2019, the Wollongong slugger produced an incredible comeback in the rematch on Fight Island.
Despite going into the championship as favourite, Volkanovski was dropped twice in the opening two rounds – firstly by a head kick and then a Holloway uppercut.
He rallied in the third, the closest round of the fight, before being stronger in the fourth and fifth, when he landed more significantly and scored two crucial takedowns.
While one judge gave the bout to Holloway 48-47, two more gave it to the Aussie by the same scoreline.
Several UFC fighters claimed on
Twitter that Holloway had been the true winner – former bantamweight champ Henry Cejudo even called Volkanovski a “thief” – despite all three judges having given Volkanovski the third.
“My corner was saying it was close, and that it would be up to the third round,” Volkanovski said. “But I was confident I did enough in that third round and the judges were too.
“Then I think everyone could see I got the last two. (Early on) I was too relaxed, it was hard to pull the trigger. It took me until the third round to get moving. I don’t know why. Maybe no crowd?
“But to come back like I did from being down, to wake myself up — I told myself, ‘c’mon, you got a belt, you have to take this back to your family’. That shows heart and determination. I showed what a champion is made of.”
Volkanovski said he would now be moving on from Holloway, who is regarded as the greatest featherweight ever, after taking his undefeated run to 19 fights, including all nine in the UFC.
“To beat Max back-to-back like that, I believe I’ve finished that chapter,” he said.
“First time it was five rounds to nothing. Clear cut.
“So I don’t know where he goes, whether he needs to move up, but
I’ve got my eye on the contenders, whoever is next.”
Volkanovski is not interested in a super fight with Cejudo, who is retired, saying he would prefer to go on a run against the division’s top contenders.
Given the Aussie has now beaten the two men considered the greatest featherweights of all time, including a 2019 win over Brazilian Jose Aldo, his new goal, he said, was to earn the crown for himself.
“I want that GOAT status,” Volkanovski said. “I’m going to keep defending this belt, show everyone I’m the best and everyone is going to be screaming my name as the GOAT.”
In a bizarre twist to the controversial fight, Volkanovski said USADA drug testers had woken him on fight eve at 10pm, three hours after he had gone to bed.
The move was bizarre given that to hit US prime time, the Abu Dhabi card started in the early hours of Sunday morning.
“I wanted to sleep because I had to get up at 3am,” Volkanovski said. “But at 10 o’clock the night before they decided to wake me up for a USADA test. I don’t know what the go was, but I thought it was pretty rude.”