Alexander Volkanovski is heading into another championship fight, and talkSPORT reported Monday that the Australian made what the outlet called a stunning admission ahead of it. The occasion is a historic one. When he faces Movsar Evloev, it will be his 12th consecutive UFC title fight.
That streak number comes from Dovy, who pointed out on X that Volkanovski’s last fight without a belt on the line was against Jose Aldo in May 2019. Do the math on that. Every time he has walked to the Octagon in roughly seven and a half years, there was gold on the table, a five-round contract, and the best available opponent standing across from him. That is a brutal schedule for anybody. The pay-per-view title slot rarely hands out soft landings, and Volkanovski has lived there since before the pandemic.
The Evloev fight is set for UFC 333, according to a Yahoo Sports headline, which also noted that former bantamweight champ Petr Yan is giving Volkanovski the edge in the matchup. I’ll take Yan’s opinion seriously, since he’s fought at a level where an opinion on elite grappling means something, but I’d want to see a betting line before getting excited about one fighter’s pick.
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Retirement is on the table in his circle
The timing of the admission is interesting given the company Volkanovski has been keeping. His friend and training partner Israel Adesanya posted a YouTube video this week with Volkanovski alongside him, and the two discussed what retirement might look like, as MMA Mania and MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee reported. Neither man gave a timeline. Adesanya, who has dropped four straight, said he’d want adrenaline outlets like running with the bulls or the World Series of Poker, and promised he would not come back to fighting once he’s out.
Volkanovski already has one foot in a second career. He appears in the new Street Fighter movie, which MMA Mania said arrives next week.
There’s also a shared-opponent thread here. Diego Lopes, who challenges Charles Oliveira for the BMF belt at UFC 335 on Dec. 12 in Las Vegas, has fought both Volkanovski and Evloev. Lopes told MMA Fighting that Oliveira is “definitely” the toughest matchup of his career, which ranks Oliveira above both of the men meeting at UFC 333. Make of that what you will.
Sal’s take
Eleven straight title fights is a stat I’d put up against almost any résumé number in the sport, and it cuts both ways for anyone thinking about his chances. On one side, nobody on the roster has more championship rounds banked recently, and five-round experience matters against a grinder like Evloev, who wants to drag you into deep water and keep you there. On the other side, the mileage is real. A fighter who has been in nothing but title fights since 2019 has been taking damage from the absolute best, every single outing, with no tune-ups mixed in. When a guy’s training partner is filming retirement chats and the guy himself is making admissions that a British outlet labels stunning, I start reading the tea leaves on the price. If the books hang Volkanovski as a big favorite on name value at UFC 333, I’ll be looking hard at the other side of that number.
