Alexander Volkanovski heaps praise on Ilia Topuria after KO loss at UFC 298: ‘That was a clean right hand’
Former UFC featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski reflects on devastating knockout loss suffered against Ilia Topuria last night.
After over three years as featherweight champion, Volkanovski would drop his title to Topuria after the 27-year-old landed a brutal right hand not long into the second round.
Alexander Volkanovski heaps praise on Ilia Topuria
Volkanovski, now on back-to-back losses, was ever the professional when discussing the loss. The fan faviroute credited Topuria for his performance and gave no excuses.
“You can’t take anything away from Topuria,” Alexander Volkanovski said during his post-fight press conference. “If he puts a hand on you like that, you’re going to go down. I don’t care, that’s just that.
“That was a clean right hand and I think no matter who you are, you let one of those land on your chin while you’re caught there, you’re probably going down. Don’t let him catch you, that’s what that was. He caught me, so I won’t take nothing away from him. I’m not going to sit there and say it was this or it was that. I felt great. Camp was great. I felt good in there.”
Volkanovski came into the Topuria fight just three months after being knocked out after being on the receiving end of a head kick from Islam Makhachev. When comparing the two, Volkanovski admits that unlike the Makhachev, which he took on short notice, he felt prepared and ready but Topuria’s power proved just too potent.
“This one, I was high spirits the whole way, I’m still in high spirits. He caught me, that’s that,” Volkanovski continued.
“I felt good in there, I felt like I’d seen everything early, but he ended up catching me. I was pretty comfortable in the first round and then we started being like, alright we’ll start to do more. I was just about to do more and he caught me, so that’s just the game. I’m pretty confident we were probably up until then, but that’s just the game.”
Volkaonvski will likely take time out after two back-to-back stoppages but has proven to be a highly competitive and motivated fighter. He will be back.
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