Breaking the Curse: Alexander Volkanovski

How Volkanovski Reclaimed the Strap as a 36 Year Old Man at UFC

Rising from the Ashes

Contents:

• Controlling the Range

• Exploiting Lopes’ Habits

• Beating Him at His Own Game

• Diego Doing the Same (and why it wasn’t enough)

Alexander Volkanovski has broken the “35-year old curse” in MMA. For those unaware, no fighter over the age of 35 has won a UFC title fight from Flyweight (125) to Lightweight (155). If you include Welterweight (170) in that calculation, there are only 2 (both by Tyron Woodley, a reigning champion who beat a fast-tracked Darren Till and a 40-year old Damien Maia). There are a myriad of reasons why this is the benchmark age a fighter’s elite ability begins to wane. Simply, fighting is a grueling sport.

Perhaps more impressively, Alexander ‘The Great’ Volkanovski was knocked out cold in both of his previous fights. Once by a head kick at the shin of the Islam Makhachev, and again by the demonic punches of Ilia Topuria. When the fight against Diego Lopes was announced, there was reason to worry. Though Lopes does not have the depth of abilities to match an all-time great fighter like Volk, he’s a physical powerhouse with an eye for strong counters. I knew Volk had a path to victory, but fighting is unpredictable. No matter how good you might be at controlling your opponent, you will undoubtably find yourself in tricky situations. For an aging man who’s durability is not his greatest asset, there was always a chance he could have his lights shut out early. To my utter enjoyment, Volkanovski survived all of Lopes’ best shots and pitched a near shut out to reclaim his rightful place at the top of the division.

Despite being the shorter, less powerful man (in terms of striking power), Volkanovski dictated the pace and the rate at which exchanges took place. As outlined in the video linked above, one of Lopes’ biggest hurdles coming into a fight with Volkanovski is his reactionary fighting style. Despite his heavy hands and fast, aggressive wins, Lopes is not a pressure fighter. He waits at the end of range to counter when an opponent comes in with strikes. Volkanovski was able to better anticipate and create opportunities through his jab and step-in feints (V1). Volk’s jab is a multi-faceted tool and at its basest level kept a barrier between him and Lopes. With how reactionary he is, constantly pawing the jab into open space can dull Lopes’ ability to sense when a real opening is coming, and pops him in the face should he decide to enter range himself.

Lopes is not a pressure fighter, but he does like to follow his opponents. He rarely presents tools to cut an opponent off and follows where an opponent was rather than anticipating where they will be. In between Volk’s jabs and step in feints to bait overcommitments from Lopes, he spent almost the entirety of the fight circling towards his right (V2). A more studied pressure fighter, like Ilia Topuria, will quickly shut this down with kicks or hooks to the circling side, and wide steps to cut off the exit. Lopes does not do any of this. Volk’s constant circling kept him out of the direct path of Lopes’ rear hand on the counter, and forced him to constantly turn to keep Volk in his line of sight. These moments where Lopes is turning give Volk split seconds to mask his entries from a favorable angle: out of Lopes’ line of sight to hopefully catch him out of his stance. Volk’s offense was even used to help propagate this movement at times (V3).

Lopes’ reactionary tendencies and lack of pressuring footwork were exploited well by Volk. Still, Lopes is a giant for the weight class and seems to have bags of bricks masquerading as his hands. No matter how well Volk maintained distance with his jab, he still needed other tools to contend with such a man at range.

Disclaimer: The video clips included in this article are not owned by the author. They are included for educational purposes only to illustrate key moments in the fighter’s career and demonstrate aspects of mixed martial arts techniques and strategies. All rights to the video content belong to their respective owners.

V1

V2

V3

Controlling the Range

In the battle of feints (V4) Volkanovski was firmly in control. Lopes marched forward with a few jabs to match Volkanovski’s output and the odd uppercut to dissuade a takedown attempt, but Volk’s more committed attempts could often force a backwards leap from Lopes (something he does quite often, to his detriment). Lopes does not have the requisite footwork to cut off Volk’s exits, but he does plod forward throughout a majority of the fight. This leaves him very heavy on his front foot and thus a sucker for Volkanovski’s other favorite weapon: the low kick.