Alexander Volkanovski loves the doubters who think he will not win at UFC 314 against Diego Lopes. Why, you ask? Because he wants to prove the haters wrong. “There’s a lot of people doubting me, right? I’m fine with that. I feel like I want to prove them wrong, so I’m in that same position, but I’m not upset that I feel that way,” he declared boldly before the D-day. As a fighter who occupied the throne for more than 1500 days (as per UFC), he knows well that his show is far from over.
The 36-year-old is one of the greatest featherweights in UFC history—five title defenses with three victories over Max Holloway and one over Jose Aldo. However, he lost two back-to-back fights against Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria. For him, getting back the belt is a matter of legacy, while for his young and hungry opponent, Diego Lopes, it’s about creating a new history. The 30-year-old Lopes, whose fighting skills have yet to go 25 minutes, but he is not to be underestimated. After all, his record is an impressive 26 professional wins and only 6 losses.
But this time Lopes is against a former champion who has the biggest power beside him—Experience. So, who is going to win? The final answer will only come on 12th April at the Kaseya Centre. Now, let’s see what Jared Cannonier has to say about the result. He seems to have full faith in the Aussie star, and while speaking to Mike Perry on the Overdogs podcast, he commented on the reason for his support. He said, “I think Volk is going to win with the experience. He’s going to weather the early storm unless he gets knocked out.”
However, the former UFC welterweight turned bare-knuckle boxing star thought otherwise. He declared, “I’m telling you I don’t know if he’s been the same you know he does a lot of promoting too, and when he showed up as an old man taking a nap at the last fight, I was like this is not a good sign so. Diego’s been incredible and he’s been humble. He hasn’t had adversity, has just been dominating this fight for sure.”
The Great recently spoke to Daniel Cormier and explained that he has an upper hand because of his awareness of a high-pressure situation along with his experience. Meanwhile, he also gave specific advice to his opponent.
What did Alexander Volkowski tell Diego Lopez?
“He needs to be reckless,” Volk said, challenging the 30-year-old to be a storm inside the cage. It was not just a taunt for his opponent, but again perception of Lopes as a fighter. The Great already knows that the Brazilian is a dangerous fighter who throws caution to the wind.
He said, “He fights like you would think if someone lost their composure in a title fight—that’s what it’s going to look like. But that’s how he fights, you know what I mean? And that’s why it’s exciting, because he will risk it all, you know, to land that shot. He’s a hazardous type of fighter, especially on the feet.”
Volkanovski knows that his opponent is ready to risk it all and thus is bracing for a high-pressure fight. Not to mention, Volk likes a methodical and well-thought-out strategy and praised his opponent’s aggression, but in a way, taunted him as well. He insinuated that this fight is between strategy versus chaos. With his experience against elite fighters, will Alexander Volkanovski again take the belt? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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