At UFC 298, Alexander Volkanovski was knocked out in the second round by Ilia Topuria losing to the featherweight championship. Not only is it the end of one of the greatest runs in the history of the FTW division but it is the third loss out of four fights for the future Hall of Famer. Alex “The Great” has already built the legacy of an undersized fighter who established himself as one of the greatest 145-pound fighters ever. His entire fight record (both before and during his UFC career) is 26-4, which boasts a 22 consecutive fight win streak including an impressive 3-0 record versus fellow featherweight legend Max Holloway. In this sport, however, UFC fans are familiar with a history of great performers going on a downward sled until they ride off into the sunset.
The most famous example of this is legendary knockout artist Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell. He was a superstar for representing what an American badass resembled. Tough as nails, beer belly, Mo-Hawk, and exceptional knockout power. He was a pioneer of the company and arguably the first mega-star of the UFC. He had an excellent trilogy with another great competitor in Randy Couture and of course, maybe the best rivalry of all time with Tito Ortiz. After defeating his arch-rival Ortiz for the second time, Liddell would lose his light heavyweight championship to Rampage Jackson by knockout. Liddell ended his career by losing 5 of his last six fights, with four being knockouts.
Other fighters have seemingly gone on this sort of decline after winning a championship or building legend status in their careers. Tony Ferguson, Jose Aldo, Anderson Silva, Rashad Evans, Cody Garbrandt, Dominick Cruz, Petr Yan, and the list continues. We could see Volkanovski on the same path. He moved up to the 155-pound lightweight division to face reigning champion Islam Makhachev to join the UFC’s exclusive list of double-division champions. The fight was a titanic close battle that left major debate on who was the victor. Makhachev won by decision and many fans were clamoring for a rematch to have a decisive winner. They got their wish after “Volk” was asked to come in on short notice and get a second crack at the first man to defeat him in ten full calendar years. This would have disastrous results after Volkanovski would get KO’d in the first round via a head kick. Then came the results of UFC 298.
What’s so concerning about Volk is that he admitted that he was having a mental health crisis leading up to his rematch against Makhachev. During an appearance on former two-time middleweight champion Israel Adesanya’s podcast and YouTube channel, he admitted to daily drinking for about three to four weeks before his loss to Makhachev. “To be honest, it made it a little bit easier because it snapped me out of it. I was drinking every day for three or four weeks, honestly, I don’t even know. That’s unheard of for me. Like, everyday… I was like, ‘This has got to stop.’ I ended up saying that the day before I got the call.” For a fighter dealing with mental health and sobriety issues just before having to knockout losses on global television after being on the top of the MMA world, it would behoove his camp and close associates to make sure Volkanovski is in the best head space before stepping into the Octagon.
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