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Alexander Volkanovski has been the UFC featherweight champion for almost three years. 'The Great' captured the 145-pound title from former champion Max Holloway in December 2019 at UFC 245 via unanimous decision.
Watch Volkanovski vs. Holloway 1 below:
Since then, the Australian has defended his title four times. His title defenses came against Brian Ortega, Chan Sung Jung, and twice against Max Holloway. He is the second-longest-reigning UFC featherweight champion in history.
Prior to his time in the UFC, Volkanovski won world championships in multiple other mixed martial arts promotions. Interestingly, the UFC featherweight kingpin also fought as a welterweight earlier in his career.
The 34-year-old currently holds a professional MMA record of 25 wins against one loss. He is undefeated in the UFC and is currently riding a 12-fight win streak in the UFC. Volkanovski also holds the No.1 position on the UFC's pound-for-pound list.
Such accolades have not, however, dulled the fighter's hunger for greatness. In his next fight, 'The Great' will move up in weight to challenge newly crowned lightweight champion Islam Makhachev for his lightweight title at UFC 284.
UFC 284 is scheduled to be held at the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia, on February 12, 2023.
Alexander Volkanovski details how a fight with Islam Makhachev will go down
During the post-fight presser at UFC 280, featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski claimed that Islam Makhacehev won't be able to hold him down for long in their fight.
'The Great' stated that his nuanced footwork and unpredictable fighting style will present problems for the Russian:
"I'm very, very hard well not only to take down [but also] hold down. One thing I always say, especially these little short legs, they are very easy to get back to my feet. So that's going to be one hard thing. Getting me down is going to be a problem. If you do, I'm bouncing right up and it's going to be standup most of the way through. You are not going to land on me like that because... I don't just stand in from of you... I've got a lot of good footwork and [I'm] very very unpredictable."
Watch Alexander Volkanovski talk about Islam Makhachev below:
