It was a long time in the making, and didn’t come easy, but Alex Volkanovski made it a homecoming to remember with a classy unanimous decision win over Diego Lopes at UFC 325 in Sydney.
Fighting in front of his hometown fans for the first time since November 2017, the Wollongong local delivered a typically gritty performance to defend his featherweight title with scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 50-45.
Three years after falling short in his brave lightweight world title tilt against Islam Makhachev in Perth, this was Volkanovski’s crowning moment of an already Hall of Fame career.
“I almost had my moment in Perth, but I’ve had my moment here in Sydney,” Volk said as the 20,000 strong crowd went wild after the 25 minute battle.
“I couldn’t have done it without you, Sydney.”
In front of a who’s who of Australian sporting royalty, including Nathan Cleary, Steve and Austin Waugh, Jerome Luai, Cameron Ciraldo, Stephen Crichton, Cam Rayner and Anthony Mundine, Volkanovski had the vocal crowd singing every word of Men at Work’s ‘Land Down Under’ for his highly charged walkout.
“To do it here in Sydney, it ain’t getting any easier,” he said of the win. “In camp, there was a lot of things going on, but we pushed through.
“Adversity is a privilege. I’ve said it all along. It makes it more of a challenge and fires me up even more.
“That’s what makes a champion. Grit, determination, sacrifices, I’ve got it all under fire.”
After an even first round, Volkanovski reeled out of an exchange with an apparent eye injury in the second. He rubbed his left eye a few times, but managed to keep fighting.
Volkanovski had his best moment of the fight to that point in the third, landing two big overhand rights on Lopes’ chin.
The challenger was wobbled momentarily, but regained his senses and landed a nice short right hook on Volkanovski’s chin, stunning him for a split second before the end of the round.
The fourth was Volk’s best of the fight, landing more overhand rights and a nice one-two combination in close as Lopes began to tire.
A painful low blow added to the Brazilian-Mexican’s problems, and he finished the round arguing with referee Marc Goddard.
Lopes opened the fifth and final round with an injured left knee, and despite being barely able to put any pressure on it, managed to take Volkanovski’s back in a wild final few minutes.
Volkanovski will take some time off, but said he’s looking forward to another title defence later this year against either Movsar Evloev or Lerone Murphy.
Earlier on, Western Sydney fan favourite Tai Tuivasa came agonisingly close to pulling off a last-gasp knockout win against Tallison Teixeira, before losing a unanimous decision.
In the same arena he made his much-hyped UFC debut with a stunning flying knee knockout, Tuivasa couldn’t pull off the same finishing blow as Brazil’s Teixeira landed a desperate third-round takedown and hung on for victory.
Teixeira won the first two rounds through his grappling before Tuivasa rattled him three times in the third.
It looked as though the Aussie was close to stopping the exhausted Teixeira, but was gassed as well, and now faces an uncertain future.
Tuivasa still has fights left on his UFC contract, and remains a huge star at home and abroad, but it’s hard to see a future for him after six straight defeats.
It was a mixed bag for the Australian contingent, with Junior Tafa being submitted in the second round by Billy Elekana, and Sebastian Szalay flatlined by a perfectly timed knee to the face courtesy of Keiichiro Nakamura.
Jacob Malkoun – a training partner of Rob Whittaker and a wrestling coach with the Bulldogs – put in a supreme striking performance en route to a unanimous decision win over American Torrez Finney.
Malkoun’s coach, Alex Prates, works as the Bulldogs’ wrestling coach and the pair were seen celebrating and taking photos with Doggies coach Cameron Ciraldo and captain Stephen Crichton after exiting the cage.
Quillan Salkilld choked out Jamie Mullarkey in the first round of their all-Aussie lightweight showdown, while Cameron Rowston stopped Cody Brundage and Jono Micallef put ‘The Welsh Gangster’ Oban Elliott to sleep with a rear-naked choke.
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