UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski reveals greatest achievement

Alexander Volkanovski doesn’t think becoming a two-time UFC champion is his greatest achievement. Volkanovski believes his greatest achievement was his ability to always be himself throughout his career. Although being an MMA fighter at the highest level in the world comes with a lot of extra pressure, Volkanovski has never lost his true self. The Australian sometimes forgets that he is UFC featherweight champion when people recognize him on the street as someone they have known from childhood.

Volkanovski admits that avoiding the pomp and circumstance meant a slow rise to stardom. However, Volkanovski believes his sacrifice has earned him loyal fans who will support him regardless of wins or losses.

‘Love is incredible now’

“Many people ask, ‘What is your greatest achievement?’ I always say that I was able to be myself throughout the process, and I still am,” Volkanovski told the UFC. ‘I sometimes forget that I’m doing things like this. I’m with my family, doing my thing, I’m walking down the street and people say, ‘Hello, I think I just know you from school.’ I’ll say, ‘Oh yeah.’ I literally completely forget about it [being a fighter]. I’m just me. It was a slower process through everything. I didn’t have the hype, I didn’t have the pressure from everyone. Even when I was a champion, it took a while for people to really get to know, understand, and like me. But now I feel like there is so much love. The love is incredible now. And they are loyal… I feel like no matter what happens, I will still get the love. And that’s because I was able to be myself during that whole process.”Although Volkanovski is one of the biggest stars in the UFC today, the Australian spends most of his time with his family on his farm, cooking, cutting meat or hunting. One fan hilariously knew Volkanovski from his cooking channel on Instagram and only later realized he is a UFC champion.

Volkanovski won the featherweight title for the first time in 2019 and defended it five times before losing to Ilia Topuria in 2024. Topuria vacated the title and advanced after defending it just once against Max Holloway. Volkanovski won the vacant title against Diego Lopes last year. Volkanovski will attempt to make his first defense of his second title run in a rematch against Lopes (27-7) at UFC 325 on Saturday in front of his home crowd at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia.