Alexander Volkanovski was sick on fight day at UFC 333, and he wouldn’t touch so much as an ibuprofen before he went out and stopped Movsar Evloev in the second round.
The featherweight champion confirmed the illness at the post-fight press conference in Abu Dhabi after reporter Oscar Willis asked him about it. Willis then laid out the wildest part on X: “Alexander Volkanovski was very sick this morning, and refused to take medication (even ibuprofen) because he felt in some way it would be giving him a sporting advantage.”
Read that again. The man had the flu and worried that a painkiller would be cheating.
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Volkanovski talked about it the way most people talk about a flat tire. “I was good enough to get out there and get it done,” he said. He added that fighting through problems is “a part of the challenge that I like, anyway,” and that when he starts getting sick, his reaction is that the fight would have been too easy otherwise.
He also gave the best line of the night. “When I get injuries and I’ve gotta fight through them, I don’t know why, but it makes the story better. I’ll save them for documentaries.”
There were clues before the bell. MMA Mania pointed out that the 38-year-old’s voice sounded rough at Friday’s early morning weigh-ins, and some fans chalked it up to the weight cut. After the fight, his training partner Craig Jones confirmed on Instagram that Volkanovski had been battling the flu that week.
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The fight
He still looked like the best featherweight alive. Evloev walked into Etihad Arena unbeaten at 20-0, and Volkanovski handed him his first loss by TKO (punches) at 4:54 of Round 2 in the main event. Bloody Elbow called it one of the most impressive wins of his career, which is a big statement about a guy with that résumé, and it’s hard to argue after watching a sick 38-year-old finish an undefeated contender with six seconds left in the round.
The rest of the card was busy. In the co-main, Petr Yan retained his title with a unanimous decision over Merab Dvalishvili, 48-47 on all three cards. Lone’er Kavanagh stopped Ramazan Temirov at 4:28 of Round 1, Aaron Pico needed just 1:14 to finish Losene Keita, and Dominick Reyes put away Azamat Murzakanov with a head kick and punches at 2:40 of the first. Alexander Volkov took a unanimous decision over Rizvan Kuniev.
Michael Chiesa summed up the internet’s mood on X: “New mythical fighter unlocked,” he wrote, followed by “Flu Game Volk.” Fair enough.
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My take: this is about as Volkanovski as it gets. Plenty of fighters would have taken anything legal in the cabinet and nobody would’ve blinked. He decided even ibuprofen felt like an edge, skipped it, and still beat a 20-0 contender inside two rounds. Somewhere a documentary editor just got a great cold open, and every featherweight who wants that belt now has to account for the version of Volkanovski who can win while he’s sick.
