UFC commentator Joe Rogan believes Islam Makhachev’s second victory against Alexander Volkanovski led to the latter’s downfall. Makhachev’s title defense against Dustin Poirier comes on the back of two back-to-back wins versus Volkanovski. While the first win may have been controversial, Makhachev left no doubts by stopping ‘The Great’ in their rematch, and since then Volkanovski lost his belt to Ilia Topuria as well.
In a recent episode of his podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, Joe Rogan was joined by Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu phenom Craig Jones. During the episode, the conversation turned to Makhachev’s upcoming title defense, and this made Rogan touch on Volkanovski’s losses, saying,
“When Volkanovski fought [Islam] the first time and he was perfectly prepared, it was an amazing fight. I thought he won…Then he loses the fight to Islam, he gets caught with that head kick, and then he gets knocked out by [Ilia] Topuria… so this is a short amount of time and then everything kind of falls apart. And I think it wouldn’t have fallen apart if not for the rematch [with Islam].”
After being knocked out by Makhachev, Volkanovski did not take enough time away from the sport. Instead, he rushed into a fight with Topuria and was brutally knocked out in the second round.
According to Rogan, the second match with Makhachev severely compromised the 35-year-old, and he believes that ‘The Great’ should have fought Topuria directly instead of the rematch. However, as things stand, Volkanovski has lost both his belt as well as the pound-for-pound title in the UFC.
What is next for Alexander Volkanovski
As a champion, ‘The Great’ was one of the most active and dominant fighters. However, taking enough time off to recover is a crucial aspect of the sport that Volkanovski did not follow. There are only so many hard shots a fighter can absorb before his chin starts to become susceptible.
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Now that Volkanovski has been knocked out twice, he will have to take significant time away from the sport to collect his thoughts and let his body rest. Once that is done, Volkanovski can plan his return, take on a few contenders, and defeat them for a shot at the title.
