Alexander Volkanovski is 38, defending the featherweight title on Saturday, and he’s figured out which part of camp he refuses to cut. Speaking with MiddleEasy ahead of UFC 333, the champion explained that he’s protecting the intensity of his training while managing the overall volume, a trade a lot of fighters his age talk about and fewer actually make.
That’s the adjustment in plain terms. Hard sessions stay hard. There are just fewer of them, or less total mileage around them, so the body that shows up on fight night is sharp instead of ground down. Volkanovski also walked through his preparation and mindset for the defense, the mental side he’s leaned on to stay at the top of a division that has never stopped producing young problems.
The problem this time is Movsar Evloev. UFC Brasil posted on X on Monday that the champion had laid his cards on the table for the challenger. The fight headlines UFC 333 on Saturday, Oct. 24.
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Anyone hoping the oddsmakers would sort this one out is out of luck. Championship Rounds pointed out on X that Polymarket currently has the matchup at 50-50. You don’t see a champion and a challenger priced dead even very often, and it tells you the market can’t decide whether age or Evloev’s style is the bigger threat to the belt.
If you want evidence the intensity part is real, Volkanovski provided some himself. Championship Rounds shared a clip from the champion in which a teammate appeared to pass out from exhaustion during one of their training challenges. His reaction:
“Did he pass out? F*ck man, that was an absolute war.”
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So the volume is coming down. The sessions he keeps are apparently still putting people on the mat.
MMA Sucka also ran a piece headlined around Volkanovski talking about his UFC 333 fight, which shows how much of this week’s media run has centered on the champ.
Life after Saturday
Volkanovski already has at least one post-fight trip lined up, and it has nothing to do with a rematch. According to Spinnin Backfist on X, he plans to head to Dagestan soon to film an episode of his Cooking With Volk series with Islam Makhachev. The plan, in his words:
“We want to do a whole hunting on horseback, catch stuff, cook over a fire....you can just imagine how good that content will be.”
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That’s a champion confident enough in his week to schedule a horseback hunting trip before he’s made weight. Elsewhere on the card, UFC Brasil is promoting a Brazilian contingent of Daniel Santos, Iasmin Lucindo and Nicolle Caliari, with the prelims starting at 10 a.m. Brasília time.
My take: managing volume at 38 is the smartest thing Volkanovski could say this week, because the guys who lose belts at this age usually lose them in the gym first. The 50-50 line feels right to me. If his legs are fresh in the championship rounds, he walks out with the belt and heads to Dagestan to cook. If Evloev drags him into a long grind, we’ll find out quickly whether cutting volume was wisdom or just a nicer way of saying the tank got smaller.
