![Alexander Volkanovski will look to become a two-division champion this Sunday. Picture by Adam McLean Alexander Volkanovski will look to become a two-division champion this Sunday. Picture by Adam McLean](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/8ba92b3c-6c7b-4e61-86fc-11024797cf2e.jpg/r0_246_5838_3541_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Pub test.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The question: Who is Australia's greatest fighter? You'll hear names like Jeff Fenech, Lionel Rose, Johnny Famechon, and Kostya Tszyu. His young bloke might be on the way too.
How long does it take for someone to say Alexander Volkanovski?
Because this ex-concreter from Wollongong, who once spent his weekends as a pint-sized prop charging off the back fence for the Warilla Gorillas, has a fair claim to the throne.
And should the UFC's No.1 pound-for-pound fighter add the lightweight championship to his featherweight crown in Perth on Sunday, his legacy will be impossible to ignore.
MORE SPORT
To cast Volkanovski's name alongside those boxing legends gives the uninitiated some idea of what the mixed martial artist can accomplish this weekend. Because inside the cage, he is already in that discussion, crafting a legacy as one of the greatest of all time.
Yet now the stakes could not be higher for a man despised by bookmakers outside our shores as Volkanovski [25-1] looks to pry the 155-pound title away from Islam Makhachev [23-1] in the main event of UFC 284.
"I'm chasing to be one of the greatest or the greatest. That's not going to be up for me to decide," Volkanovski said. "But that's where I want to be."
Fighters used to run from guys like Makhachev, a Dagestani champion of the Khabib Nurmagomedov mould who wrestled bears growing up.
But Volkanovski, he runs straight at guys like this, moving up a division in search of history.
![Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski come face to face in Perth. Picture Getty Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski come face to face in Perth. Picture Getty](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/a1e1f9f3-731e-4187-acb7-7e204bd3e4ae.jpg/r0_55_1024_631_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"That's been happening forever, even on the footy field. A lot of people are like 'He's moving up, it's crazy'," Volkanovski said.
"I'm training every day in the gym with guys who are heavier than me. This is lightweight, I train with welterweights and even middleweights sometimes, especially in the grappling and wallwork, wrestling. The guys my size are obviously usually going to struggle with me there, so that's why I've got to go with bigger guys.
"That's why when people keep mentioning power and size, it's not that. The thing to deal with is their style. No one has ever just overpowered me. If he thinks I'm just going to be some weak little featherweight, then he is going to be in for a rude shock.
"No matter what happens in there, I'm not going to be shocked, I'm not going to be puzzled. I'm going to be going for it the whole time. If there's anyone for the job to figure any puzzle out, I'm the man."
Volkanovski could become the eighth fighter in UFC history to hold a championship in two divisions, a feat that would see him join Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Conor McGregor, Georges St Pierre, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes and Henry Cejudo in the history books.
McGregor, Cormier, Cejudo and Nunes are the only ones to have simultaneously held titles in two divisions.
Volkanovski looks to join them on Sunday, at the UFC's first event in Australia since October 2019, when Israel Adesanya dethroned middleweight champion Rob Whittaker in front of 57,127 people - still the biggest crowd in the promotion's history.
Lose, and Volkanovski returns to the featherweight class, still perhaps that division's greatest. Awaiting him will be Josh Emmett or Yair Rodriguez, who meet for an interim title in Sunday's co-main event and right now cannot begrudge his pursuit of glory.
"He is undefeated in the UFC, the featherweight champion, he has beat some of the legends and GOATs of the division, pound-for-pound number one. He has earned it," Emmett said.
"Let the guy do whatever the hell he wants."
That Volkanovski can do all this and still call himself an average bloke from Windang almost feels a little bizarre.
But sit down with the man who made some of the UFC's finest look second-rate during a 22-fight winning streak and you get the sense that's exactly what he is.
Never athletically gifted, he says, but always strong. That's it. The rest of the featherweight kingpin's success is built from hours training under Joe Lopez.
That and belief. Belief he could go to Rio and beat Jose Aldo, belief he could win a title from Max Holloway en route to a trilogy shutout, belief he could get out of a Brian Ortega triangle choke that nobody gets out of.
"That's why I'm the man for this job. That ticker, that heart, all that stuff you talk about what you need. That's why you see the confidence in myself," Volkanovski said.
"If I am in a bad spot, I'm going to deal with it. I've got the heart to get myself out of any position and come up on top. Even doing this, the underdog story, that's why I love it.
"I keep showing these people, these underdogs, these people out there that probably don't believe in themselves. I'm going to show them what can be done.
"Right now, people are counting me out. They won't Sunday. On Sunday, I'm going to shock the world and I can't wait to do it."
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.