UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski is a student of the game. As such, while he awaits his next Octagon assignment, we asked him what some of his favorite fights over the years were, and he provided his reasoning for picking the following five bouts.
Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva
UFC 79
“I’m a massive Chuck Liddell fan, and he lost the belt to ‘Rampage’ Jackson and then lost again to Keith Jardine and then this fight with Silva happened. It was a great fight and an awesome fight, and I thought it was Liddell’s comeback. I was stoked, but obviously it didn’t work out that way but that’s why I liked that fight and remembered it so well.”
Wanderlei Silva vs Brian Stann
UFC on Fuel TV: Stann vs Silva – March 3, 2013
“A crazy, crazy fight that was just back and forth and you literally thought the fight was going to be stopped a few times. Wanderlei looked like he was going to get stopped one second, then Stann looked like he was going to get stopped the next second. It was just a crazy fight.”
Israel Adesanya vs Kelvin Gastelum
UFC 236 – April 13, 2019
“Israel Adesanya versus Kelvin Gastelum was a crazy fight where both fighters were getting rocked, but I still believe it was very technical as well. Adesanya is always a technical fighter but Gastelum was doing so many good things for someone being a shorter fighter like myself. He was able to sort of bridge the gap so he could land them big shots. I thought that Gastelum did very well. It was just a crazy fight and it was great to see my boy Izzy get that interim title.”
Zhang Weili vs Joanna Jedrzejczyk
UFC 248 – March 8, 2020
“I was there live at the arena but unfortunately didn’t get to be in the crowd because I was backstage and had to watch it from the screen with Israel Adesanya while he was warming up. We couldn’t hear the crowd, there was no sound on the TV and while you usually need the sound to build the atmosphere for the fight, we could see how crazy of a fight that was. It looked like such a savage fight and credit to the girls for an amazing fight.”
Dooho Choi vs Cub Swanson
UFC 206 – December 10, 2016
“It was just back and forth, absolutely rocking each other. Big shots, just trading off and it was a consistent banger. They were just banging the whole time and it was comething to watch. Credit to those guys for putting it all on the line like that.”
Make sure you watch all of Alexander Volkanovski’s fights on UFC Fight Pass.
For more information and updates, sign up for the UFC Newsletter here.
