Alexander Volkanovski is unquestionably one of the all-time greats, and his coach thinks he stacks up well against arguably the greatest fighter of all time, Georges St-Pierre.
City Kickboxing coach Eugene Bareman corners Volkanovski this Saturday when he defends his featherweight title against undefeated challenger Movsar Evloev in the UFC 333 main event. This is Volkanovski’s second championship reign and he has already put together a Hall of Fame résumé after being entrenched in the top t0 of the pound-for-pound
rankings for the better part of a decade.
In Bareman’s eyes, Volkanovski’s incredible success has nothing to do with luck or raw talent; rather, he has scraped and clawed to attain his legendary status.
“One of the most special athletes that I’ve any involvement with,” Bareman told She Loves The Gloves. “What makes him special is I don’t think he’s by any stretch of the imagination anywhere near the most talented athletes. I don’t even think he’s in the top half of talented athletes that I’ve ever had involvement with. He doesn’t even make the halfway, but hard work, commitment, dedication, a desire to get better will outwork talent and beat talent any single day.
“So if you like, what happens is a guy who probably wouldn’t make the top half of my talent list has made himself—through sheer determination and grind—he has turned himself into that talent. In terms of natural talent, it just wasn’t there; in terms of talent now that he’s created, his coaches have created, he’s one of the best athletes in the sport.”
With that praise in mind, Bareman then compared Volkanovski to St-Pierre, the UFC’s longtime welterweight champion and one-time middleweight champion who lost just twice (against opponents he would later beat in rematches) in his 28-fight career.
“He, to me, is our generation’s version of ‘GSP,’” Bareman said. “He can hit you at range, stay at range. Amazing, because he’s short. … People make this mistake of thinking that a short guy can’t fight long, which is completely not true. He can fight going backwards. He can get aggressive and come forward. He can wrestle. He can defend wrestling and scramble. If you think about what he can do and what his leading attributes are, he can take the fight and turn the fight and mold the fight into wherever he needs to go to beat the opponent, which is what GSP would do.
“GSP needed to kind of put his standup above anything else, he would do that. If he needed to put his defensive wrestling above everything else, he could do that. If he needed offensive wrestling, he could turn that on. He had such a big toolkit that he could pull out and use that it just made him just a supreme pound-for-pound athlete and I think that’s what Volk is. When I think of pound-for-pound, for me, it’s your ability to take the fight wherever it needs to go in accordance to whatever is happening in the fight and the opponent. So that’s what I think of Volk.”
At 38, Volkanovski is the rare fighter to regain a UFC title after losing it, especially when it comes to the lighter weight classes where speed and athleticism are often at a premium. After suffering a devastating knockout loss to Ilia Topuria, Volkanovski bounced back with a vacant title fight win over Diego Lopes when Topuria departed the featherweight division, and then beat Lopes again in a rematch.
Win or lose Saturday, Bareman knows Volkanovski is one of a kind.
“I’ve seen it all,” Bareman said. “I’ve seen athletes who are the same age as him and they just can’t do what he does. They don’t have what’s in here. He’s got something in here that makes him the elite of the elite. He is training and committed to retaining that title and keeping that title and staying at the top of the world.
“I’ve seen what the world thinks are great, elite athletes, and they’re not like him. They pale in comparison to him, so very special.”
TOP STORIES
Update. Dillon Danis admits his pal Conor McGregor “was in a dark place.”
Swaggerjack. Floyd Mayweather Jr. thinks McGregor copied his style.
Peer. Jon Jones thought Ilia Topuria would usurp him at the top of the all-time great list before UFC White House loss.
Invitation. Movsar Evloev welcomes a future fight with Arman Tsarukyan.
Personal. Recently released Farid Basharat says Dana White’s parting shots “did damage to me.”
VIDEO STEW
What The Heck? is back! Live from Las Vegas!
UFC 333 media day.
Checking in with Dakota Ditcheva.
UFC 333 hype.
UFC 333 Embedded.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Flawless collaboration.
Merab ain’t ready for this.
You’ve come a long way, baby.
Wednesday Wisdom.
Closer to reality?
Update.
No.
Yes.
We’ll allow it.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Henry Cejudo vs. Song Yadong (wrestling); RAF 15, Nov. 28
FINAL THOUGHTS
I love me some GSP, but I’m also a big Volk guy, so I take zero issue with Bareman’s comparison. Both dudes are awesome in their own way, fought almost every elite opponent of their era, and battled back from tough losses to become champion again. Yeah, I dig it, actually.
EXIT POLL
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