Following criticisms of UFC 276, Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski decided to support Middleweight Champion Israel Adesanya.
The middleweight title defence was mocked by some viewers, even though ‘The Last Stylebender’ defeated Jared Cannonier by unanimous decision.
On The MMA Hour, Volanovski chatted with Ariel Helwani and covered various topics. The UFC featherweight champion discussed his latest performance in detail, whether he is currently the best fighter in the UFC pound-for-pound and other topics.
Alexander Volkanovski responded to claims that Adesanya’s performance was monotonous and questioned whether those claims were accurate:
“Of course it is, man. Like it’s going to happen every time. Every time you have tough fights. Look the thing is, people need to understand when someone only has a puncher’s chance and that is all they’re looking for, come on. Why does a champion have to take all of the risk? Why does he have to come forward?”
He continued:
“When he knows someone is like waiting for a big shot. The person, the challenger…And I’m not taking a shot at Cannonier but I think they need to make something happen. I don’t think it’s up to the champ to make something happen. With Max, Max is going to try and make something happen. Same as (Brian) Ortega, same as ‘(Korean) Zombie’.”
Check out the interview below:
The two UFC champions had previously worked out at City Kickboxing together. In the same UFC 276 event, Volkanovski and Adesanya, who were the co- and headliner bouts, respectively, prevailed.
Future looking bright for Alexander Volkanovski
On July 2, “The Great” defeated Max Holloway in their trilogy match.
In the first match, Alexander Volkanovski prevailed by unanimous decision at UFC 245; in the second match, he survived by split decision at UFC 251. At UFC 276, he subsequently won by unanimous decision once more.
The legendary featherweight is now at a place where he is beginning to consider championship honours in other weight classes.
Alexander Volkanovski is particularly interested in the lightweight world championship matchup between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev at UFC 280 in October.
Volkanovski now has a 25-1 overall record in mixed martial arts and a 22-fight winning streak. The Great has notable wins over Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, Brian Ortega, the Holloway above, and “Korean Zombie,” to name a few.
