Coach reveals Alexander Volkanovski submitted a 5-0 heavyweight three times in his first sparring session

Alexander Volkanovski's coach Joe Lopez revealed that 'The Great' submitted a 5-0 heavyweight three times in his first ever sparring session. In a recent interaction with ESPN MMA, Lopez talked about Volkanovski's journey to becoming a UFC champion:

"After the sparring session I asked him, 'Would you be interested in having a fight?' And he says that was always something he wanted to do. I guess the rest is history. I got to know Alex and what type of person he was. One of my goals was always to have someone get into the UFC. Once we both got together, we both had the same dream and we just moved ahead. Once we got here we said we want more than just to be a UFC fighter, we want to be a UFC champion and now our next goal is to build that legacy," said Joe Lopez.

You can watch the interaction with ESPN MMA below:

Alexander Volkanovski defends his UFC featherweight title against Brian Ortega in the main event of UFC 266. The build-up to their rivalry began with the UFC making Volkanovski and Ortega the head coaches in the most recent instalment of The Ultimate Fighter. Team Volkanovski went on to win the season.

'The Great' captured and then defended the belt against former featherweight champion Max Holloway in his previous bouts. Volkanovski won both of his fights against 'Blessed' via decision.

Brian Ortega fought against Max Holloway in the main event of UFC 231 in 2018. 'Blessed' defeated 'T-City' in the fourth round via TKO. Ortega earned his way back to title contention by putting on a spectacular show in his win against 'The Korean Zombie' in his previous bout

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Alexander Volkanovski is eyeing that 'G.O.A.T' status

Alexander Volkanovski has revealed he's building up his legacy to achieve 'G.O.A.T' status. 'The Great' is the current UFC featherweight champion and has the third longest active winning streak in the promotion among current UFC champions. He is tied with lightweight champion Charles Oliveira. Both trail behind Amanda Nunes at 12 and Kamaru Usman at 14.

Volkanovski hasn't lost any of his fights in the UFC so far and has an impressive 22-1 record in his MMA career:

"Obviously I've got the belt but there's no end goal. We're gonna keep moving, we want that goat status, we want the pound-for-pound status. We want all of it, so we will build the legacy," said Alexander Volkanovski.