- Alexander Volknovski came clean about failing to deliver against Islam Makhachev at UFC 294
- “The Great” also admitted that not having a full camp affected his performance
Alexander Volkanovski finally opened up about what went down at UFC 294. The reigning UFC featherweight champion also apologized to the fans for coming up short.
Volk couldn’t do it
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Volk admitted that he thought everything was good but Islam Makhachev still managed to get his kicks landing, including the head kick that knocked him out. He also didn’t shy away from confessing that he wasn’t able to fight the way he wanted to when he was out there.
“Obviously, it didn’t go my way, felt strong in there, I felt very strong so even when he did clinch up, I thought, ‘Oh, yeah we’re good here.’ But just on the feet, I just couldn’t pull the trigger,” Volkanovski explained. “… Islam, full credit to him, did a great job of obviously setting the kicks up, which we knew he was going to do and then just obviously was going low and all that, I knew it would eventually go high. I thought I was going to block it, I did try and block it, it still went over.”
“Being that volume fighter that I usually am, [it] cost me a bit in in this fight, you could see usually I throw a lot of volume and there’s a purpose to that. It doesn’t have to land but I usually like people fight in my fight, I don’t really give them chances and time to just set things up. I don’t like to let people think and I let him [Islam] do his thing. I just stood in front of him,” he added. “We’re at a range that I wanted to fight at so I could be more dangerous, I knew I would be in danger there… so I did all, everything I just could not pull the trigger. I was talking to myself in there and like come on! you got to go, you got to go, like do something and I just couldn’t do it.”
The short notice took its toll
Volkanovski took the fight on a short notice but he was confident that he could take Makhachev out. However, “The Great” realized that not having proper preparation also played a huge role in his devastating defeat.
“It was pretty clear, you could see that I wasn’t me in there and you know you can obviously put that down to preparation, you know I’m a big believer in preparation everyone knows that and I just wasn’t prepared as I usually am. I think you need to have them sparring rounds, you need to see the shots, you need to you know defensively and all that, you need to have these bodies in front of you consistently to help you. Obviously, when it comes to fight time and I didn’t have that,” Volkanovski regretted.
“And again… I told you guys I made a promise for you guys that I’m going to let the these hands go and I did completely opposite so sorry about that. It is a game,I got caught ,full credit to Islam, he’s a great Champion,” he continued.
The second loss to Makhachev still did not affect Volkanovski’s status as the featherweight champion. On the other hand, Islam is now believed to be considering a move to welterweight and chasing double-champion status.
Check out Volk’s full video below:
