Israel
Adesanya might be a little bit biased, but he believes Alexander
Volkanovski has reached a historic level among featherweights
in mixed martial arts.
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Volkanovski earned his 21st consecutive professional triumph at UFC
273 this past Saturday, dominating Chan Sung
Jung en route to a fourth-round stoppage at Vystar Veterans
Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. The 33-year-old Aussie is 11-0
in UFC competition, with four victories in title bouts to his
credit, and his resume includes triumphs over the likes of Jung,
Brian
Ortega, Max
Holloway (twice), Jose Aldo and
Chad
Mendes.
“Standout fight [at UFC 273], Volkanovski, of course,” Adesanya
said on his YouTube channel.
“The G.O.A.T. The featherweight G.O.A.T. Yeah, I’m hyped right now.
I haven’t even had breakfast, I couldn’t eat because my
adrenaline’s been running. Volkanovski, I said it was going to be
bad. It was bad.”
Adesanya and Volkanovski, of course, both have ties to City
Kickboxing. That doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of the
featherweight champion, who currently sits behind Kamaru
Usman at No. 2 in Sherdog’s
pound-for-pound rankings. And Volkanovski owns victories over
Holloway and Aldo, the other two fighters usually mentioned in
featherweight G.O.A.T discussions.
A trilogy with Holloway could be in store for Volkanovski, because
his second triumph over the Hawaiian was quite controversial.
However, Volkanovski vs. Holloway was scheduled for UFC 272 before
Holloway was forced to pull out of the event due to injury. At
Saturday’s post-fight press conference, Volkanovski expressed an
interest in moving to 155 pounds for a shot at the winner of
Charles
Oliveira vs. Justin
Gaethje at UFC 274 next month.
“I’m in a position where I can do a couple of things, and if this
division doesn’t want to sort itself out and they’re all going to
sit back and f—ing wait for s—t, then fine – I’ll move up and fight
lightweight,” Volkanovski said. “I’m an easy champ to understand:
Take that No. 1 spot, you get that shot. If not, let’s move up. I
think we’re in a good position to move up, maybe see what happens
in this lightweight division title fight, and maybe move up.
Because again, I’m showing I’m levels ahead in this division. Maybe
we move up.”