"Watch my bounce back" - Alexander Volkanovski pledges to overcome mental vulnerability post-KO defeat before facing Ilia Topuria at UFC 298

Alexander Volkanovski wholeheartedly believes that he will prove his doubters wrong against Ilia Topuria at UFC 298. In a recent interview with Megan Olivi, 'The Great' spoke not only about the crushing knockout he suffered at Makhachev's hands, but also his moment of vulnerability at the post-fight press conference when he broke down in tears and spoke on the state of his mental health going into the fight. He said:

"Obviously being concussed, and you know, I just got knocked out, so it was pretty crazy. But again, I'm glad people see me like that, cause it touched a lot of people. So many people reached out, from not only athletes, from all parts of life, successful, you name it. I'm not gonna mention names but it was pretty incredible. So I think it was nothing but a positive feedback and I'm proud of that."

However, he was adamant that those who saw his mental struggles as weakness were sorely mistaken. He said that he aims to show them his mental fortitude and rebound from his knockout loss come fight night. He added:

"If anyone thinks that's weakness, watch what happens February, you know what I mean? The best part about this, people got to see that, and people get to see the bounce back. People get to see, like, yeah how I was vulnerable, got knocked out. You know, there's gonna be questions, 'Is Alex going down?' Whatever it is. Watch my bounce back."

Check out Alexander Volkanovski talk about his mental health (19:11):

Whatever happens come fight night, Volkanovski has vowed to step into the octagon as prepared as he has ever been, in sharp contrast to his suboptimal preparation heading into UFC 294.

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Alexander Volkanovski will bring himself within touching distance of José Aldo's title defense record if he wins at UFC 298

José Aldo, who is arguably still the greatest featherweight of all time, defended the divisional title seven times, which is the most number of defenses by any champion in featherweight history. If Alexander Volkanovski successfully defends his title at UFC 298, he will have recorded six title defenses.

This would put him just one title defense below Aldo and only make his case for being the greatest to ever do it at 145 pounds stronger.