ceremonial weigh-ins<\/a>, Volkanovski was asked how much he expects to be different in their rematch and he had a clear answer: Other than it possibly not going the distance, not much.<\/p>\n\u201cObviously, footwork and that\u2019s going to be a massive thing,\u201d Volkanovski said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a couple of changes. But yeah, I think we see the same performance. But I do really want to get a finish. I think I can hurt him. If I hurt him and get him to the ground, whatever it is. If his chin is that good, the ref\u2019s going to have to stop it eventually, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
While Volkanovski hasn\u2019t fought since UFC 314, Lopes had to earn his chance to face Volkanovski again by facing Jean Silva in September. Lopes defeated Silva by second-round knockout to keep his name in the contender mix and was eventually awarded the title shot over the likes of Lerone Murphy and Movsar Evloev.<\/p>\n
Even with Lopes back on the winning track, Volkanovski doesn\u2019t expect to see a completely different opponent in the octagon.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, he obviously had some troubles with the footwork, cutting off, and things like that,\u201d Volkanovski said. \u201cYou would think he\u2019s going to make them adjustments, but these adjustments, you know, you\u2019ve got to do it properly. You do it wrong, you\u2019re just going to open up even more doors for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we\u2019ll see. He didn\u2019t show me anything in his last fight. It\u2019s only been 10 months. How much can he improve? Is he capable of making changes like that? Does he need to, though? Is he most dangerous because he\u2019s a guy that likes the firefight. He wants to be in a position where he\u2019ll eat one to give one. To be honest, I think that\u2019s where he\u2019s most dangerous. So if he tries to change a whole heap, I think that just opens more doors for me, but I\u2019m expecting the same guy. I\u2019m prepared for a guy that made the right adjustments and I\u2019m preparing for the same Diego, which I think is going to be more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 36, Volkanovski became the oldest fighter to win the UFC featherweight title and now, at 37, looks to become the oldest to successfully defend it.<\/p>\n
He attributes his longevity to more than just natural physical gifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m lucky I was so resilient, durable, and I didn\u2019t mind hard work,\u201d Volkanovski said. \u201cI always push myself to the limits and the boundaries and that\u2019s just going to continue. So I can probably deal with what some people just can\u2019t. I\u2019ve got my mindset and my mentality to thank for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust endless years of punishing myself, I\u2019m probably going to feel it later, but it is helping me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski is familiar with Diego Lopes\u2019 game. \u201cThe Great\u201d already holds a win over Lopes, the man…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-448218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}