Starting with his UFC 221 TKO win over Jeremy Kennedy, Alexander Volkanovski is on a mission to never go the distance again.
Alexander Volkanovski was happy with his performance at UFC 221 — and he hopes you were, too.
The undefeated featherweight returned to his stoppage ways last month in Perth, defeating Jeremy Kennedy via second-round TKO. Volkanovski hadn’t finished a fight since his Octagon debut in late 2016; he had two decision victories in between.
And those pair of decisions were rather out of the ordinary for Volkanovski. Prior to his UFC signing, 11 of his 13 pro wins ended inside the distance; he’s a natural finisher.
For a while, it seemed as if that wouldn’t hold true for Volkanovski in the big leagues. But then he went out in his home country and shut down a fellow unbeaten fighter. As someone who yearns to move up the 145-pound rankings and fight the best, Volkanovski believes finishing Kennedy was very important for his career.
“Not only was it a big win, it’s always good to get the finish,” Volkanovski told BloodyElbow.com. “I’m always looking for the finish.
“Anyone that’s watched my career knows that I finish fights and that I’m one scary dude to be in the cage with. If you watch any of my fights leading up (to the UFC), I’ve fought tough competition my whole career, and I’ve put absolute beatings on a lot of them.”
Volkanovski’s two UFC decision wins came against Mizuto Hirota and Shane Young. If you ask Volkanovski, he would have stopped Hirota had his chin not been made of granite. As for the Young fight, Volkanovski admitted he didn’t want to take big risks, considering how much he was favored to win. Plus, he said, Young was defensive for most of the fight and didn’t give him much to work with as a counter striker.
“He’s just tough,” Volkanovski said of Hirota. … “A lot people [said], ‘Mate, if that was anyone else, they’d be dead.’
“My last fight I probably played it a bit safe, but you can still see I’m always trying to knock someone’s head off when I’m throwing them punches. For some reason, it just didn’t happen. That’s probably the first time I’ve ever had back-to-back decisions. That won’t ever happen again. I can’t see me doing too many decisions.”
Volkanovski thinks in the Kennedy bout, he reminded fans that he’s here to stay — and contend.
“I dominated,” he said. “I think I put myself back on the map. A lot of people are throwing the [Khabib Nurmagomedov] ground-and-pound stuff out there, which, I guess, is good for now. But I’m gonna have my own style; I want it to be Volkanovski ground-and-pound. I opened a few eyes, but I know I’m definitely gonna open more.”
Volkanovski hopes never to go to the judges again. He really doesn’t want to hear Bruce Buffer say, “And winner by unanimous decision …” after one of his fights from now until the day he calls it quits.
And he thinks there’s a reasonable chance of that happening, simply because as he starts getting challenged, his willingness to take risks in the cage will increase.
“As I get better competition, I guarantee that more finishes are gonna come, because I’ll really get to use more of my skill, rather than me knowing that I’m so much better than the guy,” Volkanovski said.
“I don’t want to be known as a guy who’s gonna get decisions. I’ve never been known as that my whole career. That won’t happen again. People are gonna watch and be like, ‘Crap, where did those two decisions come from? Look at what he’s doing to these guys now.’”