Featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski recently lost his Pound-for-Pound number one ranking to newly crowned UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
After vacating his light heavyweight crown in 2020, ‘Bones’ spent three years away prepping for a bout at heavyweight. At UFC 285, Jones submitted the top-ranked Ciryl Gane in just over two minutes. Jon Jones adds the UFC heavyweight world championship to his already impressive legacy.
Alexander ‘The Great’ Volkanovski captured UFC featherweight gold in 2019. In his entire career, he has defeated notable opponents such as Max Holloway, Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes, ‘The Korean Zombie’ Jung Chan-sung, and Brian Ortega, among others.
Volkanovski was the pound-for-pound leader until the return of Jon Jones at UFC 285.
Alexander Volkanovski on Jon Jones
The UFC featherweight world champion Alexander Volkanovski spoke with Steve-O on YouTube about losing his P4P spot. The Australian fighter said:
“Everyone loves talking about it. It’s a big deal. I’ll be honest with you, [becoming] a champion was great, being pound-for-pound No. 1 [was greater], which Jon Jones took that from me. I don’t think with all of the [rankings], but the UFC, yes. It was just that one [fight in three years], but what he did, moving up — at least he moved up and showed that pound-for-pound comes into play.”
He continued:
“The body of work that we’ve done in the last three years, obviously, a lot of people are gonna be like, ‘Look what Alex has done in the last three years.’ You can get that, but at the same time, look at what Jon Jones has done as well. Can I really argue that? He’s gonna be one of the greatest of all time. For him to take that is like, ‘Damn it! What do you do?’” [Transcript courtesy of MMA Mania]
See the full video below: