In the fight game, the highs can make you feel invincible—but the lows? They hit hard. That’s the emotional rollercoaster Alexander Volkanovski found himself on this past year.
After dominating the featherweight division and going undefeated for nearly a decade, Volkanovski suddenly found himself on the wrong end of three crushing losses in a little more than 12 months. And as he admitted, the sting of those setbacks lingers way more than the high of his 25 victories ever did.
Losses are a part of the game, unless you’re Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0) of course, every fighter trips and up and falls short at some point in their career. In the case of Volkanovski, he suffered his first loss in a decade against Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 in February 2023.
It was an attempt at becoming a double champ and was an extremely close fight.
So, what Volk did was immediately bounce back with a win over Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290. But since the fight against Islam was so tight, he decided to move up to 155 lbs and take on the champ again. Unfortunately, Islam would go on to catch him with a head kick at UFC 294 in October 2023
Disappointed, Volk would return to 145 lbs to defend the featherweight title just four months later at UFC 198 but get caught by Ilia Topuria and lose the gold he had guarded for so long.
As he now prepares to take on Diego Lopes at UFC 314 after a year-long break, the former featherweight champion believes that it is not the losses themselves, but how you process them that separates great fighters from the rest of the flock.
In a recent interview with Kevin Iole, Volkanovski said, “You don’t get scared of getting hit and punched and hurt. You get scared of losing. I am worried about getting hit because that could cost me the fight and lose.”
“So losing is obviously something that bums you”, he continued, adding, “You need to have that mindset of you can not lose, like the hate for losing. But when you do lose, can you still accept it and move on.”
Needless to say, going into the fight at UFC 314, Volk still has doubts about how he will perform on the night.
Can Volkanovski roll back the years?
After a rough stretch—going 1-3 in his last four, including two knockout losses to Islam Makhachev and a title loss to Ilia Topuria—Volk has asked himself the same questions that fans, journalists, and analysts have asked of him. Is his time in the Octagon coming to an end?
Has it already but he’s not ready to accept it just yet?
In a recent interview with ESPN, Volkanovski opened up about the doubts he faced during his time away. “You start asking yourself, ‘Have I lost it? Do I still want it?’” he said. “But I always came back to, ‘Relax… when the time comes, you’ll flip the switch.’”
Although he admits that the mileage does take a toll and he probably doesn’t have as many years left in him as of right now, he feels the switch has flipped.
“We started camp early and we’re kicking ass. Weight’s ahead of schedule”.
