Alexander Volkanovski reveals family wanted him to lay down gloves and retire on UFC 314 night

Alexander Volkanovski says his family asked him to retire after UFC 314. [Image courtesy: @alexvolkanovski on Instagram]
Alexander Volkanovski says his family asked him to retire after UFC 314. [Image courtesy: @alexvolkanovski on Instagram]

Alexander Volkanovski recently opened up about his family's wish to see him retire after his title victory at UFC 314. Volkanovski addressed his family's concerns about continuing his MMA career.

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Volkanovski made his octagon comeback after a 14-month break to take on surging contender Diego Lopes for the vacant featherweight title in the main event of UFC 314 this April. The Australian emerged victorious via unanimous decision and became a two-time 145-pound champion.

In a recent conversation with former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson on the MightyCast podcast, Volkanovski revealed that his family wanted him to retire from MMA after UFC 314:

''Straight after the fight, my whole family is just like ‘Why didn’t you just put the gloves down in the middle of the Octagon straight away?’, they all want me to retire. They all wanted me to, but now that I’m making the decision to keep going, I’m probably not going to bring that back up purely because they’re worried about affecting my frame of mind. Which I’ll be alright, they can say what they want, and maybe they’re just trying to be selective. But they made it clear that they all wanted me to stop straight after this fight.''
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Check out Alexander Volkanovski's comments below (15:41):

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Volkanovski was coming off a devastating knockout defeat against Ilia Topuria, losing his featherweight belt in the process at UFC 298 last year. However, the 36-year-old made a strong return and solidified his legacy by beating Lopes at UFC 314. He is now expected to begin his second reign as a champion by facing Yair Rodriguez in a rematch.


Alexander Volkanovski comes clean about his knockout loss to Islam Makhachev

After failing in his first lightweight title bid against Islam Makhachev, Alexander Volkanovski took up the rematch on short notice at UFC 294 last year but suffered a brutal headkick in the opening round.

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In the aforementioned interaction with Demetrious Johnson, Volkanovski discussed the repercussions, saying:

''I had a decent concussion from Islam [Makhachev]. I feel like I had more of a concussion from the Islam one. Even though I was knocked out longer with Ilia, I had a lot more of the symptoms with the Islam one. So I didn’t have head contact [in sparring], but then when you’re easing into it, now you’re easing into it, making sure you’re not getting hit. Trying to put yourself in safer positions, and you even start camp wrong. I should have had the break.” [1:18:38]

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Edited by Swagat Kumar Jena
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