Undisputed featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski has confirmed his plan to move up into the lightweight division, with eyes on becoming just the fifth double-champion in the sport’s history.
The Aussie, who now has 11 consecutive wins, produced perhaps his most comprehensive performance to date at UFC273 in Jacksonville on Sunday, smashing his 37-year-old opponent early in the fourth round as the referee stopped the contest.
Speaking to Daily Mail Australia from New York City, Volkanovski confirmed his plan to move up to 155pounds while the weightclass he has dominated for the past few years ‘sorts themselves out’.
‘We want to move up. I plan on taking out this division for a long time. There’s no point fighting another guy for the sake of it,’ he said.
‘Until they’re done figuring it out, I’ll fight elsewhere. They’re holding up the division, not me.’
Undisputed featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski has confirmed his plan to move up into the lightweight division
The Australian has his eyes set on Charles Oliveira’s lightweight title – saying he wants to become just the fifth double champion in UFC history
The Aussie superstar said he wants to go straight to a title fight against Brazilian lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, looking to become just the fifth double-champion in UFC history.
He said he wasn’t as interested in a big money fight with someone like Conor McGregor or getting his feet set against a veteran like Tony Ferguson or Rafael Dos Anjos, instead wants to go straight to the top.
‘I want to go straight to the title. If it’s not straight away, if I get a no.1 contender or the Max Holloway Trilogy and I wipe another guy off, you can’t deny me my double chance status,’ he declared.
‘They’ve done it for a lot less, I’m definitely deserving.’
Volkanovski said he isn’t interested in a big money fight against Conor McGregor, a former double champion, and instead wants to go straight to the top
Volkanovski kisses wife Emma after his 11th straight UFC win on Sunday. He’s now targeting a move up to the lightweight division
Volkanovski confirmed he wants to fight three times this year, with a potential dual championship title fight to be held at the end of 2022.
‘They need to make it happen,’ he said.’
Volkanovski told Daily Mail Australia he thought Sunday’s fight should have been halted earlier, and was captured in the moments before the bell asking Jung Chan-sung if he could continue.
‘I was so good I started feeling a little bad. I asked: “Are you alright? Do you want to keep doing this?”‘ the featherweight champ said.
Undisputed featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski admitted he asked the Korean Zombie ‘do you want to keep doing this?’ during his UFC273 win on Sunday
Volkanovski said he ‘felt bad’ for annihilating the Korean legend and guilty when he saw him crying with his wife after the bout
The 35-year-old said Korean Zombie was ‘showing signs he was OK with stopping’ the fight prior to being knocked out by a brutal right hook.
‘That just shows how good I was, to have guys like that asking for it,’ Volkanovski told Daily Mail Australia.
‘After the third, I didn’t think he should go, he looked defeated. A lot of those shots were big shots.’
The married father-of-two, who proudly hails from the New South Wales south coast town of Warilla, even admitted he felt guilty looking at Zombie’s wife after the beating he’d given the popular fighter.
The Korean star and his partner were both captured in tears following the bout, which will likely be the 37-year-old’s last.
‘I started feeling bad. He was talking about retiring, I felt bad. What I did to him in front of his wife,’ he said.
‘I’m looking at them and I’m feeling bad.’
The Korean star and his partner were both captured in tears following the bout, which will likely be the 37-year-old’s last
Volkanovski admitted his unusually animated entrance was due to him feeling a little flat with the late start and wanted to psych himself up
The stoic Volkanovski was unusually animated walking out to the ring, screaming into the camera, interacting with the crowd and singing along to his walkout track Land Down Under
He revealed he broke with his usual walk out because he was feeling flat due to the late start.
‘I was trying to pump myself up. I was really chill and really calm, I had no nerves so I thought I’ll work the crowd and soak up the energy,’ he said.
‘It was late and I was tired, I wanted to wake myself up. I actually thought: “S**t, I’m a bit too good at keeping myself composed.”‘
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