Alexander Volkanovski gave fans a breakdown of the upcoming UFC 290 event and gave his predictions for fights.
His teammate Dan Hooker is also fighting in the undercard of the fight. A featherweight title clash between Alexander Volkanovski and Yair Rodriguez will headline the event. Hooker will be taking on Jalin Turner in a lightweight showdown. Volkanovski, who has trained by his side and seen him evolve, gave his predictions for the lightweight matchup:
"Obviously I'm gonna back Dan Hooker coz he's my boy. Again, it's a tough fight but he's very durable himself, I think he's stepped everything up in training, in the last few times I've trained with him.....He even said he flipped his switch before his last fight, you know you need to have all the right stuff......But right now he's taken training to a whole new level."
Dan Hooker was scheduled to fight Jalin Turner at UFC 285, however, the fight was called off. With more training time for both fighters, fans can expect a brawl. Hooker has just one win in his last three fights so he will be looking to get back to winning ways in order to be anywhere near the top of the division and in range of challenging for the title.
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Take a look at the video (quotes from 2:58 onwards):
Alexander Volkanovski claims he would rather die than tap out in the octagon
Prime recently announced Alexander Volkanovski and Israel Adesanya as official Prime-sponsored athletes. For the promotion of the product, the featherweight champion shot content with Logan Paul at his Puerto Rico house. 'The Great' appeared on the Impaulsive podcast and spoke about the moment when Brian Ortega got him in a choke hold:
"Yeah, cause obviously tapping was never an option. So I was doing what I needed to do and it wasn't f***ing working and then I was just like, well I'm gonna keep f***ing trying. And then the lights started dimming, it was either his arms are gonna gas out or I'm gonna die, like literally that's it."
Take a look at a clip from the podcast:
Alexander Volkanovski fought Ortega at UFC 266 and ended up winning the bout via decision. He is now looking to defend his belt against Yair Rodriguez and reclaim his spot as the P4P best in the UFC, following which he may look to secure a rematch against Islam Makhachev.