Alexander Volkanovski has finally gotten his wish to face off with tough top contender Movsar Evloev after over a year of calling the No. 1 contender out. The two will face each other in the main event of UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, and it will be another test to see if “Old Man Volk” can keep standing atop the featherweight division despite his age.
“I get to do a 38,” he joked with Main Event TV. “I don’t know if I’m breaking records. Maybe a defending champ at 38 in these [lower] divisions hasn’t been
done, right? So that’s pretty cool.”
“Everyone knows how I’ve always been: I wanna fight the best guys,” Volkanovksi said of Evloev. “He’s the best guy. He’s proved that. He’s been the best guy for the last two years. Outside of the champ, he’s been the best guy. Some people might say he’s not the most exciting. It’s like, who cares? I’m exciting enough.”
“People are worried about the wrestling, and the wrestling, grappling style that’s just taken over the UFC. You’ve seen a lot of it, right? The Dagestanis, Chechens, they come through and they’re hard to deal with. A lot of people are trying to avoid those fights.”
“I get to go out there and show you I’m that guy,” he continued. “It was that sort of fight with Islam. Everyone thought I was just gonna get ragdolled. At least now they know. They’re not expecting me to get ragdolled. But they might still be a little worried that this guy knows how to win. This guy’s a grappler, but trust me: I’m the guy to go out there and ruin that bloke’s plans, and that’s no knock on him.”
“Could he take me down? Yeah. Can he hold me down? Sorry. No. And I say that with full confidence. So, again, there’s nothing to worry about.”
Volkanovski insisted that the fight would end up a banger on the feet, because he’s not going to let it stay on the ground.
“It’s gonna be a striking fight because I’m gonna keep it there,” he said. “Movsar is a big threat to everyone because of that gas tank, because of that ground game, because of the wrestling offense that he has. It’s just not the biggest threat to me. That don’t work on me. I can do that forever.”
“He’s gonna be put on the feet with me, and Movsar is gonna have to strike with me, and that’s gonna end bad for him. I truly do believe that.”
Volkanovski heads into UFC 333 on a two fight win streak, looking for the second title defense of his second featherweight title reign. He defended the 145 pound belt an impressive five times before Ilia Topuria knocked him off his perch in 2024, but has since bounced back and proved that age is just a number, even in the youth-dominated lighter divisions. Can he keep it up? We’ll find out in Abu Dhabi this October.
