In the aftermath of UFC 294 this past weekend, UFC featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski, took the time to address his KO loss to Islam Makhachev. Volkanovski leveled with his fans about the effect his short lead up to the fight had on him and in addition apologized to his fans across the globe.
“It was pretty clear, you could see that I wasn’t me in there and you know you can put that down to preparation. You know I’m a big believer in preparation, everyone knows that and I just wasn’t prepared as I usually am. I think you need to have them sparring rounds, you need to see the shots you need to know defensively and all that. You need to have these bodies in front of you consistently to help you. Obviously, when it comes to fight time and I didn’t have that,” Volkanovski explained via his Youtube channel. “And again… I told you guys I made a promise for you guys that I’m going to let these hands go and did completely opposite, so sorry about that. It is a game, I got caught, full credit to Islam [Makhachev], he’s a great champion.”
Alexander Volkanovski Addresses UFC 294
If you somehow missed the events that transpired at UFC 294, Islam Makhachev faced off in a rematch against Alexander Volkanovski, who stepped in on short notice following an injury for Charles Oliveira. With another chance at becoming a double champion, Volkanovski fell short once again after a head kick from Makhachev in the first round sent the Australian fan favorite crumbling to the canvas. In addition to his thoughts about the short notice camp, “The Great” also shared his thoughts about the fight itself.
“Obviously, it didn’t go my way. [I] felt strong in there, I felt very strong so even when he did clinch up I thought ‘Oh yeah we’re good here.’. But just on the feet, I just couldn’t pull the trigger… Islam, full credit to him, [he] did a great job of obviously setting the kicks up, which we knew he was going to do and then just obviously setting the kicks up, which we knew he was going to do. And then just obviously was going low and all that, I knew it would eventually go high. I thought I was going to block it, I did try and block it, [but] it still went over,” Volkanovski detailed about the fight.
Volkanovski Didn’t Get to Show His Skill Set
Volkanovski talked in great detail as well about how he felt he never got to show off his skill set that has made him the third highest ranked pound-for-pound fighter on the UFC roster.
“Being that volume fighter that I usually am cost me a bit in this fight. You could see usually I throw a lot of volume and there’s a purpose to that… I don’t really give [my opponents] chances and time to just set things up. I don’t like to let people think and I let [Islam Makhachev] do his thing. I just stood in front of him,” Volkanovski added. “We’re at a range that I wanted to fight at so I could be more dangerous. I knew I would be in danger there.So I did everything, I just could not pull the trigger. I was talking to myself in there and like ‘Come on! You got to go, you got to go. Do something.’ and I just couldn’t do it.
Despite the events that transpired, both Volkanovski and Makhachev took to instagram to share a photo they both took together after the fight. The post showed a great deal of respect the two have for one another.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
