Having toppled a dominant champion and put an end to the Blessed Era, Alexander Volkanovski is more than ready for a sequel to his UFC 245 battle with Max Holloway.
Las Vegas, NV — “I’m not cocky, I’m confident.” Those words, from new UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, exemplified his approach to UFC 245 best. Speaking to reporters, Cageside Press among them, following the event, Volkanovski seemed like a man who never once doubted himself.
Is that any surprise? After all, he brought an end to the Blessed Era, earning a five round unanimous decision to topple reigning champion Max Holloway in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Few were willing to pick against the established Hawaiian champ heading into the PPV event. Perhaps it wasn’t so much a knock on Volkanovski (21-1) as it was a vote of confidence for one of the greatest featherweights of all time.
Either way, Alexander ‘The Great’ proved the doubters, such as they were, wrong. Decisively.
Despite the strong showing, however, the new champion fully expects a sequel. “I think he deserves it,” Volkanovski said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “Do I have to beat him to prove I’m a better fighter? We had five rounds of doing it and I pretty sure I won it very clearly.”
The Australian acknowledged, however, that “either way people are still going to doubt. I’ll be ready for it. And he does deserve it. It’ll make for a big fight. I’m down, of course I’m down. I’m the guy to do that.”
He’ll be the guy, he added, who will be even “better prepared the next time. I’ll know what we know works. We’re going to get an even better formula.”
“He might think he’ll get me figured out again, but I’m just too powerful man. They go one way, I go another. That’s the thing,” Volkanovski continued, confidence still high. “I’m so well-rounded, I could just go anywhere with it. If he was really fixing me up on the feet, and I have to grind it, look for takedowns, I could always go there.”
“I’ve got so many ways to go. Even striking, there’s so many ways to go. I’ve proved that. Again, he’s good with his range, it’s like ‘how you going to get into his range?’ That’s how,” he finished.
There are certainly worse ideas that Volkanovski vs. Holloway 2, and given Max has been a dominant champ and company man, the idea seems likely for sometime this summer.
Watch the full UFC 245 post-fight press conference with Alexander Volkanovski above!
