Alexander Volkanovski was so dominant in his last title defense at UFC 273, that he started “feeling bad” in the middle of the fight about the damage he was inflicting on Chan Sung Jung. There’s mutual respect between them, and despite Jung’s toughness, Volkanovski didn’t want to dish out more unnecessary head trauma after three straight one-sided rounds.
“I started feeling bad with some of the shots I was landing in there. I could see obviously he was done,” Volkanovski told TMZ.
After the tough loss was another heartbreaking scene, as the fan favorite in “The Korean Zombie” weeped and opened up to the public about how he’s considering retirement as he now doesn’t believe he can be a champion anymore.
The UFC featherweight champion urged him to reconsider, as he felt that things would’ve been completely different if Zombie faced a different fighter instead.
“I felt bad because you could see he was a bit emotional after the fight,” Volkanovski said. “You could see — I obviously couldn’t understand him, but I knew he was talking about retiring and all that.
“I wanted him to understand that it doesn’t matter who was there in front of me, that was going to happen. So don’t be so hard on yourself, because if you were in front of someone else that night, it wouldn’t have looked that way.”
After two close and competitive wins against Max Holloway, Volkanovski has churned out very impressive title defenses against Jung and Brian Ortega.
Volkanovski, 33, is currently 11-0 in the UFC and is even flirting with the idea of moving up to lightweight for a bigger challenge.
About the author
