Alexander Volkanovski’s next step could come as a surprise, as his coach has suggested he take a grappling match against former rival next.
After suffering back-to-back knockout losses over his last two fights, Alexander Volkanovski is taking an extended period of time away from fighting as he looks to properly recover.
The 35-year-old took an extremely short notice call-up to rematch Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 last October after their first fight finished in a close decision.
‘The Great’ suffered his first knockout loss in over ten years after only having two weeks to prepare for the fight. Instead of allowing himself time to recover properly, Volkanovski moved back down to 145lbs to defend his title against Ilia Topuria, just four months later.
Again, Volkanovski was viciously knocked out and is now heavily considering his next move.
Craig Jones calls for Volkanovski to take a grappling match against old foe, Volkanovski wants in
Alexander Volkanovski’s grappling coach, Craig Jones, has suggested that while the former champion is taking a step back from MMA, he should consider competing in grappling.
Several top fighters compete in grappling in between their fights, and Jones believes that Volkanovski should consider it, instead of rushing back into contact, and he has an ideal opponent in mind.
“I want to get him a grappling match. I said to him, ‘Man if we’re going to take some time away because of the concussion, let’s get you a grappling match’. My thought was, how cool would it be to see him and (Brian) Ortega have a grappling match?” Jones asked on the latest episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.
Volkanovski and Brian Ortega met in the UFC Octagon back at UFC 266 in 2021, and the Australian defended his featherweight title by picking up the unanimous decision win.
Despite cruising to a decision victory, Volkanovski had to overcome major adversity in round three after ‘T-City’ sunk in a deep guillotine, which looked to have the champion put to sleep.
“I would just love to see (the rematch) in that setting because Ortega obviously struggled to submit him in MMA, let’s see what happens in a grappling match.
“(Ortega) is super slick, he catches some crazy s*** out there. He could be losing a fight by two or three rounds and get one look at a guillotine and finish it, it’s crazy.” Jones added.
Jones is set to host the Craig Jones Invitational on August 16-17th in Las Vegas and has revealed that he will be putting up $1m in prize money for the winners of his event.
Talking to The AllStar, Volk admitted that he is interested in a possible grappling match, and would consider competing on Jones’ event.
“I’ve actually wanted to do that (grappling) when I’m waiting for fights. I think that’d be a great thing, Brian Ortega a Jiu-Jitsu specialist, that fight we had and those submissions, there’s a lot of history there for a grappling match.
“I’m sure some big Jiu-Jitsu promotions or even someone like Craig and what he’s doing would definitely want to jump on that, so while we’re sitting waiting, just to be competitive something like that would be great.” Volk added.
Joe Rogan is still adamant short notice rematch resulted in downfall
UFC commentator, Joe Rogan, is still adamant that Volkanovki’s decision to take the short-notice rematch against Makhachev resulted in his career spiraling downwards.
Not only that, but Rogan believes the Australian was unfortunate to not pick up the win the first time round, as he scored the fight for the 35-year-old.
“When Volkanovski fought (Islam Makhachev) the first time he was perfectly prepared, it was an amazing fight. I thought he won. Then he loses the fight to Islam, gets caught with that head kick, and then gets knocked out by (Ilia) Topuria.
“So this is a short amount of time and then everything kind of falls apart. And I think it wouldn’t have fallen apart if not for the rematch (with Makhachev).” Rogan added.