Volkanovski took a break from his fight preparations to join Logan Paul’s podcast. He takes on Yair Rodriguez on July 8 at UFC 290 for the UFC Featherweight Championship.
The Featherweight Champion revealed that back in his Rugby playing days in Australia, he weighed a whopping 97 kilograms, equivalent to 214 lbs. Such weight would make him a light-heavyweight in the UFC, which is remarkable considering he competes in the 155lb division and stands at just 168cm tall.
The podcast hosts, Logan Paul and Mike Majlak, were at Volkanovski’s last fight at UFC 284 in Perth, Australia, where he lost a unanimous decision to Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev. Majlak expressed dissatisfaction at the result, and both hosts criticized how fights are scored in combat sports, claiming it was outdated and required change, something with Volkanovski agreed with.
Volkanovski said that with MMA fights having fewer rounds than boxing, it increases the possibility of dubious decisions as a dominant round is usually scored the same as a close round. His example was round five against Makhachev, where he dropped his opponent and caused significant damage in the final minute. This was scored the same way as a couple of close rounds, which went in Makhachev’s favor. Therefore, all it can take sometimes is for a couple of close, ‘fifty-fifty’ rounds to go in one fighter’s favor for a decision to seem controversial.
Aiming to delve deeper into Volkanovski’s mindset, Paul asked him what was going through his head when he faced significant adversity during his title defense against Brian Ortega, a fight in which he was a couple of seconds away from being choked unconscious.
”Tapping [out] was just never an option. There are layers to it [his mindset]. I was in the triangle. No one [in training] got me as tight as Brian did, not even when I would let them; that’s how deep he got it, so credit to him, I was like,’ How did you get it that quickly?’ I couldn’t believe how quickly he did it. I was trying to change the mechanics of it [his position] to get some oxygen, but it wasn’t working.”
Volkanovski said that at one point, he could feel the lights dimming; that’s how close he was to being rendered unconscious. He said that he had the thought of ‘there’s no way he’s taking this belt away from me.’ The champion’s strategy to get out of the choke was not working, and he got to the point where he just had to accept it and hope for the best.
”It was either he’s going to gas out, or I die. Imagine being in there. You’re doing what you think will work. It’s not working; it’s getting deeper and deeper, you’re about to go out, and then I was just going like, ‘well, I’m just gonna keep doing what’s not working anyway,’ and hopefully he gasses out, you know what I mean?”
Gas out he did. Volkanovski said he sat tight and felt Ortega’s arms weaken and his grip loosened. He felt more oxygen entering his airways and could break free and attack his opponent, seeing out the fight for a victory to retain his Featherweight crown.
Volkanovski was in Puerto Rico with Israel Adesanya, who also went on the podcast as they promoted their partnership with ‘Prime,’ a drinks brand of which Logan Paul is a co-owner.
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