Tag: alexander volkanovski

Ex-UFC Champ Urges Alexander Volkanovski to Take Some Time off and Heal: ‘He’s not the same guy’

Alexander VolkanovskiFormer two-division champion Henry Cejudo believes Alexander Volkanovski may have unintentionally exposed himself following his devastating loss to Islam…

Alexander Volkanovski

Former two-division champion Henry Cejudo believes Alexander Volkanovski may have unintentionally exposed himself following his devastating loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 294.

After narrowly dethroning the ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ in their February Fight of the Year contender, Volkanovski accepted a rematch on just 11 days’ notice, stepping in for Makhachev’s originally scheduled UFC 294 opponent, Charles Oliveira. Despite the short-notice nature of the matchup, ‘The Great’ went into the bout with the utmost confidence.

Tragically, Volkanovski would come crashing back down to reality just three minutes into the contest when Islam Makhachev landed a perfectly timed head kick that spelled the end of Volkanovski’s dreams to become a dual-world champion.

Following the event, an emotional Alexander Volkanovski revealed his “struggle” to remain active inside the Octagon, even in the most unfavorable of situations.

“I put myself in his position,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “I think the biggest mistake that Alexander could do is share a lot of who he is as a person to the people. Why do I say that? ‘I’m going through anxieties, I need to stay busy guys, I go crazy if I don’t stay busy or if I don’t fight.’ If I’m a competitor and I’m seeing all that, especially seeing him get knocked out, you know what I’m gonna be doing? I’m gonna be picking at him.”

“If I’m Ilia [Topuria], if I know that he’s concussed, and I know that he goes crazy when he’s not fighting or he’s at home or he goes through anxiety. If I’m Ilia Topuria, you guys know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking about calling this dude out and getting him to step up still on January 20th to have a better chance of actually beating him. You see, there’s times when you’ve gotta keep things to yourself. When you don’t keep things to yourself, you start to expose yourself” (h/t MMA Mania).

Henry Cejudo Urges Volkanovski to take him time

Despite the setback in Abu Dhabi, Volkanovski remains in talks to defend his featherweight title against No. 5 ranked contender Ilia Topuria at UFC 297 on January 20 in Toronto. That would give ‘The Great’ less than three months to prepare for what could very well be the toughest test of his reign as the 145-pound champion.

“If I’m Ilia Topuria on the flip side, you know what I’m thinking? I have to pick a fight with him,” Cejudo continued. “I have to get him to fight me on January 20th because the simple fact that he’s concussed. He’s concussed, it’s not the same Alexander Volkanovski that was out here finishing all these opponents … he’s not the same guy.

“If I’m Alexander Volkanovski on the flip side, you know what I’m doing? I gotta humble myself,” Cejudo said. “I gotta allow my brain to heal for the next six months. I’ve been concussed. Being concussed or going through a knockout, it takes you a minute for you to really kind of start walking that straight line. So there’s two sides. Volk, take your damn time. I wouldn’t necessarily be in a rush. You’re gonna have to humble yourself. Yeah, I’m saying humble yourself because it shouldn’t be about ego or pride. It should be about winning.”

The UFC is expected to make an announcement regarding UFC 297 in the coming weeks.

Ex-UFC Champ Urges Alexander Volkanovski to Take Some Time off and Heal: ‘He’s not the same guy’

Alexander VolkanovskiFormer two-division champion Henry Cejudo believes Alexander Volkanovski may have unintentionally exposed himself following his devastating loss to Islam…

Alexander Volkanovski

Former two-division champion Henry Cejudo believes Alexander Volkanovski may have unintentionally exposed himself following his devastating loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 294.

After narrowly dethroning the ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ in their February Fight of the Year contender, Volkanovski accepted a rematch on just 11 days’ notice, stepping in for Makhachev’s originally scheduled UFC 294 opponent, Charles Oliveira. Despite the short-notice nature of the matchup, ‘The Great’ went into the bout with the utmost confidence.

Tragically, Volkanovski would come crashing back down to reality just three minutes into the contest when Islam Makhachev landed a perfectly timed head kick that spelled the end of Volkanovski’s dreams to become a dual-world champion.

Following the event, an emotional Alexander Volkanovski revealed his “struggle” to remain active inside the Octagon, even in the most unfavorable of situations.

“I put myself in his position,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “I think the biggest mistake that Alexander could do is share a lot of who he is as a person to the people. Why do I say that? ‘I’m going through anxieties, I need to stay busy guys, I go crazy if I don’t stay busy or if I don’t fight.’ If I’m a competitor and I’m seeing all that, especially seeing him get knocked out, you know what I’m gonna be doing? I’m gonna be picking at him.”

“If I’m Ilia [Topuria], if I know that he’s concussed, and I know that he goes crazy when he’s not fighting or he’s at home or he goes through anxiety. If I’m Ilia Topuria, you guys know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking about calling this dude out and getting him to step up still on January 20th to have a better chance of actually beating him. You see, there’s times when you’ve gotta keep things to yourself. When you don’t keep things to yourself, you start to expose yourself” (h/t MMA Mania).

Henry Cejudo Urges Volkanovski to take him time

Despite the setback in Abu Dhabi, Volkanovski remains in talks to defend his featherweight title against No. 5 ranked contender Ilia Topuria at UFC 297 on January 20 in Toronto. That would give ‘The Great’ less than three months to prepare for what could very well be the toughest test of his reign as the 145-pound champion.

“If I’m Ilia Topuria on the flip side, you know what I’m thinking? I have to pick a fight with him,” Cejudo continued. “I have to get him to fight me on January 20th because the simple fact that he’s concussed. He’s concussed, it’s not the same Alexander Volkanovski that was out here finishing all these opponents … he’s not the same guy.

“If I’m Alexander Volkanovski on the flip side, you know what I’m doing? I gotta humble myself,” Cejudo said. “I gotta allow my brain to heal for the next six months. I’ve been concussed. Being concussed or going through a knockout, it takes you a minute for you to really kind of start walking that straight line. So there’s two sides. Volk, take your damn time. I wouldn’t necessarily be in a rush. You’re gonna have to humble yourself. Yeah, I’m saying humble yourself because it shouldn’t be about ego or pride. It should be about winning.”

The UFC is expected to make an announcement regarding UFC 297 in the coming weeks.

Video: Israel Adesanya Reacts to Islam Makhachev’s Brutal Head Kick KO of Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294

Israel AdesanyaFormer two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was left understandly distraught after seeing his teammate, Alexander Volkanovski, go down to…

Israel Adesanya

Former two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya was left understandly distraught after seeing his teammate, Alexander Volkanovski, go down to a vicious first-round head kick in the UFC 294 headliner.

Stepping into the Octagon to run back their February Fight of the Year contender on just 11 days’ notice, Alexander Volkanovski was as confident as ever that he could solve the puzzle that the ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ presents. Unfortunately, it was not meant to be as the reigning featherweight champ succumbed to a perfectly-timed head kick three minutes into the contest.

Watching from the comfort of his home, Volkanovski’s City Kickboxing teammate Israel Adesanya was hoping to see his friend leave Abu Dhabi as a double champion. Instead, ‘The Last Stylebender’ would be left in shock after seeing Volkanovski come up short for the second-straight time against the lightweight world champion.

“F*ck. It was that left kick from southpaw,” Adesanya said in his reaction video on YouTube. “It went over the head and just clipped him. I think he caught him with it in the first fight, maybe. Still the best, bro. I love you, dude. F*ck! It was there, but it just scraped over him. F*ck.”

Coming up short of claiming his second UFC title, Alexander Volkanovski will likely return to the 145-pound division where Ilia Topuria anxiously awaits his opportunity to challenge for the featherweight championship.

Meanwhile, Israel Adesanya will continue to sit on the sidelines and enjoy some time away from the Octagon after his own devastating defeat at the hands of Sean Strickland at UFC 293 in September. The loss came five months after reclaiming the belt from long-time foe Alex Pereira. The ‘Stylebender’ has not provided any sort of timeline for his return to the Octagon, but he did acknowledge that it would be “a long time” before we see him compete again.

The UFC’s EA Sports Cover Curse Claims Another Victim

UFCThe infamous UFC cover curse strikes again. If you’re a football fan, you’re likely familiar with the “Madden” curse…

UFC

The infamous UFC cover curse strikes again.

If you’re a football fan, you’re likely familiar with the “Madden” curse where the player featured on the cover of EA Sports’ annual NFL game is doomed to encounter something bad — poor luck, a decline in play, or maybe a serious injury. Over the last decade, it’s become apparent that the curse is not exclusive to players on the gridiron.

On June 3, 2014, EA Sports released its first UFC game in the beloved series and fans immediately noticed the notorious trend when the OG cover athletes, Jon Jones and Alexander Gustafsson found themselves in some unfavorable situations shortly after appearing on the cover. ‘The Mauler’ would go on to suffer a vicious knockout at the hands of the late Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson in his home country while ‘Bones’ ended up testing positive for cocaine and was inevitably stripped of the light heavyweight title following his involvement in a hit-and-run accident in 2015.

The UFC curse would amass quite the victim count in the years that followed, bringing bad luck to megastars Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor. UFC 4 cover athlete Jorge Masvidal kept the trend going via a nasty knockout loss at the hands of Kamaru Usman as part of a four-fight losing streak that would ultimately see ‘Gamebred’ retire from the sport altogether.

In its most destructive year yet, the still-to-be-released UFC 5 game from EA Sports has already claimed three victims.

The UFC Cover Curse Claims Three Victims in Six Weeks

Earlier this year, Valentina Shevchenko and Alexander Volkanovski were revealed to be the cover athletes for the game series’ latest entry scheduled to be released on October 27. Since the announcement, Shevchenko fought to a draw with current flyweight world champion Alexa Grasso in September while Volkanovski has lost to lightweight titleholder Islam Makhachev not once, but twice in 2023.

Israel Adesanya, who features as the cover athlete on the deluxe edition of the game, surrendered the middleweight title for the second time in less than a year after losing a lopsided unanimous decision against Sean Strickland at UFC 293.

Of course, Saturday night gave us the most recent example as reigning featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski came up short for the second time in his bid to become a two-division titleholder. Stepping into the UFC 294 main event on 11 days’ notice, ‘The Great’ suffered a brutal first-round knockout after Islam Makhachev landed a perfectly-timed head kick near the three-minute mark. The ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ followed up the vicious blow with a series of ground-and-pound strikes that ultimately spelled the end of the highly anticipated rematch.

Volkanovski has now lost two of his last three fights and will likely slide to No. 3 on the UFC’s coveted pound-for-pound ranking list behind top-ranked Jon Jones and Makhachev who should slide into the No. 2 spot.

Video – Conor McGregor accuses Islam Makhachev of cheating in UFC 294 knockout win

Conor McGregor accuses Islam Makhachev of cheating back of head shots at UFC 294 in title winFormer two-weight champion, Conor McGregor has claimed Islam Makhachev cheated during the finishing sequence of his UFC 294 knockout…

Conor McGregor accuses Islam Makhachev of cheating back of head shots at UFC 294 in title win

Former two-weight champion, Conor McGregor has claimed Islam Makhachev cheated during the finishing sequence of his UFC 294 knockout win over Alexander Volkanovski last night, showing footage which appears to show the Russian land numerous strikes to the back of the Australian’s head ahead of his victory.

McGregor, a former undisputed lightweight and featherweight champion under the banner of the organization, is lined up to snap a hiatus from the Octagon next year in a welterweight fight against Michael Chandler, having remained sidelined since fracturing his left leg in a doctor’s stoppage TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021.

Tuning into last night’s UFC 294 event in the Middle East, McGregor watched on as undisptued lightweight champion, Makhachev turned in a spectacular first round stoppage win over featherweight best, Volkanovski, finishing the New South Wales native with a hellacious left high-kick and some follow-up strikes.

However, upon further review from the Dubliner – who claimed Volkanovski was susceptible to a left high-kick from the southpaw stance, Makhachev was lucky not to be cautioned for landing a series of illegal strikes to the back of the Australian’s head.

Conor McGregor’s questions Islam Makhachev finish at UFC 294

“A difficult sport to ref,” Conor McGregor posted on his official X account in a now-deleted comment. “To stop that on a warning or a point deduction when Volk (Alexander Volkanovski) was essentially out already is a tricky one. But there would be grounds for it, 100%. [It] would have been nail-biting stuff. I’d have loved to see it happen. Back of the head shots are not good.” 

As well as criticizing Makhachev’s finishing sequence last night, McGregor also hit out at arch-enemy and former-foe, Khabib Nurmagomedov – again accusing the Russian of “quitting” amid his retirement from the sport more than three years ago.

Do you agree with Conor McGregor’s view on the ending of last night’s UFC 294 headliner?