For a man once synonymous with winning, Alex Volkanovski has been getting all too familiar with losing.
Those three losses in his last four fights are bitter pills that refuse to dissolve. They linger like houseguests who don't take the hint to head home.
The former UFC featherweight champion won 25 of his first 26 bouts, including 22 in a row. He was regarded by many at one point as the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Professional sports are unforgiving, particularly at the highest levels, where the margin between winning and losing is so thin.
Though Volkanovski is coming off back-to-back knockout defeats, he remains elite. He is ranked 11th pound-for-pound by the UFC with a 26-4 career mark that’s the envy of many.
Former NHL coach Mike Babcock once called Pittsburgh Penguins’ superstar Sidney Crosby “a serial winner.” Crosby has won three Stanley Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals and countless other titles.
That’s a description that fits Volkanovski well, given his championship status, his gaudy record and high level of opposition.
This is a guy who has spent his career fighting the baddest men on the planet, and more often than not, he’s come out on top. In his last 10 fights, eight of them were against opponents who held a UFC title or an interim title.
Knockouts like those from Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria can rattle even the toughest minds. Volkanovski’s didn’t flinch.
Despite his tough stretch and back-to-back knockouts, Volkanovski’s mindset remains unshaken. As he heads into UFC 314 in Miami to face Diego Lopes for the featherweight title Topuria has surrendered, he’s focused, confident, and fully prepared to reclaim his place at the top.
Volkanovski has never been a loser. Instead, he sees this chapter as an opportunity for transformation, both in and out of the Octagon.
Volkanovski took time not just to recover, but to reconnect with parts of himself that had been overshadowed by the all-consuming identity of “The Champ.”
In the last year, he was able to heal, think, and re-center, healing not just his body, but his mind and life outside of the Octagon.
Without a fight to prepare for, he redirected his legendary focus inward. The mission: Become a better man, and, through that, a better fighter.
He was so used to being the fighter, being the champ, being asked questions about his job and his plans, that he wasn’t always as engaged in his personal life.
“It’s hard to sort of explain exactly, but I found it hard to even hold proper conversations,” Volkanovski said. “You know, I could chat all day with this talk about fighting. Usually I’m answering your questions and say I’m Number 1 and ramble on. I could go on that way for days. That’s just how I am. But when it came to actually talking to friends that I’ve had for a while, I found that harder.
“I couldn’t properly have those communications, if that makes sense. So me being able to be comfortable and be able to be myself, I could leave the gym and just be Alex, that was huge. I was always a respectful guy, but I couldn’t be always switch off that identity of being a fighter.”
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Alex Volkanovski (R) ponders the moment after his loss at UFC 298 to Ilia Topuria.
The time away enabled him to do that, to re-engage in his personal life that the hustle and bustle lifestyle of a professional athlete often prevents. And as he found himself enjoying playing with his kids, hanging with his friends, chatting up his family, something dawned on him.
Being able to separate home life from work life has enabled him to make better use of his time in the gym and thus, he believes, make him a more effective athlete.
“It’s great to be able to go work hard, do what you’ve always done in the gym, but then to switch that off and go back to your every day life when it’s time,” Volkanovski said. “ … It’s allowed me to enjoy training a little bit more again. It’s not like I walk in the gym and I’ve been thinking about it all day. Focusing on life when I’m with my family and my friends allows me to switch it on and be fresh when I walk back into the gym. And training better is what we’re trying to do and that really helps.”
He’s a 6-5 favorite to defeat Lopes and get back on the right track. Lopes is on a roll, oozing with confidence after reeling off five consecutive victories. Three of them were first-round KOs, each of which ended violently in less than two minutes.
He raved about Volkanovski — “He’s one of the greatest to do this,” Lopes said — but he’s convinced he’s going to have the belt around his waist late Saturday.
Volkanovski is 36 and history suggests he’s a massive long shot. Under middleweight, fighters over 35 are 2-33 in UFC title fights.
At 36, Volkanovski was asked if it’s still about athleticism — or if age now demands craft and guile.
“That’s a great question,” he said, beaming. “Camp was great. I wanted to be that same guy. That was the question I was asking myself. But then I answered them: I am. I am still that same guy. I understand that guys have a chance to beat me by catching me with something — by setting something up, because I don’t like to say they landed lucky shots — but that’s the only way I see myself losing. … But in my condition, I just can’t see anyone beating me for 25 minutes. That’s just not going to happen.”
The greatest athletes find ways to win even as they age and their skills aren’t as sharp as they once were.
Jack Nicklaus won The Masters at 46. Tom Brady won the Super Bowl at 43. Gordie Howe was 52 when he scored his final NHL goal.
Volkanovski has the opportunity to do something similar. Randy Couture was 44 when he defeated Gabe Gonzaga in 2007 to retain the heavyweight title, the oldest man to win a championship fight in UFC history.
Volkanovski is a pup relative to Couture.
Fighting is a young man’s game, but if there’s an old fogey who can teach those young whippersnappers a lesson, it’s Old Man Volk.
The houseguests of doubt may have overstayed their welcome, but Volkanovski never gave them a key.
When he steps into the Octagon on Saturday, he won't just be fighting for a belt. He’ll be fighting to prove that the story of Alex Volkanovski — the serial winner, the champion, the man who found himself beyond the cage — still has chapters left to write.
For all his recent setbacks, Volkanovski remains who he’s always been: A fighter in the truest sense. Not just someone who battles in a cage, but someone who faces adversity, adapts, and emerges stronger.
In that regard, he’s never stopped winning.
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Randy Couture was 44 when he successfully defended the heavyweight title at UFC 74 in 2007.