{"id":293260,"date":"2023-10-12T10:46:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T10:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/?p=293260"},"modified":"2023-10-12T10:46:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T10:46:21","slug":"volkanovski-says-he-will-go-from-the-couch-to-shocking-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/mma\/volkanovski-says-he-will-go-from-the-couch-to-shocking-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Volkanovski says he will &apos;go from the couch to shocking the world&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Alexander Volkanovski admits fighting Islam Makhachev on 11 days notice is &#8216;CRAZY&#8217; and jokes he&#8217;s &#8216;had a couple of drinks&#8217; during time off but claims he is going to get off the couch and shock the world at UFC 294<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Alexander Volkanovski has accepted a late notice fight against Islam Makhachev<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Australian is rematching Dagestani in the main event of UFC 294 next weekend<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>He has spoken about the decision and says he is ready to &#8216;shock the world&#8217;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Alexander Volkanovski has opened up for the first time on his &#8216;crazy&#8217; decision to face Islam Makhachev on just 11 days notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Australian has thrilled fans and the UFC by stepping in to replace Charles Oliveira and take on the lightweight champion in a rematch of their February bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Volkanovski underwent surgery on an arm injury this summer and was supposed to be recovering until January.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And he has admitted he&#8217;s being enjoying his time off, telling his YouTube channel: &#8216;Have I been on holidays? Yeah. Have I had a couple of drinks here and there? Yeah I have.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But I guess that&#8217;s why I feel fresh. Excited. I don&#8217;t feel worn out.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/12\/10\/76467105-0-image-a-8_1697102963128.jpg\" height=\"554\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Alexander Volkanovski has been taking time to recover but is ready to go on short notice<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/12\/10\/76410261-0-The_pair_met_at_UFC_284_in_Perth_earlier_in_the_year_and_Volkano-a-9_1697103086081.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Makhachev beat (right) Volkanovski in their first fight but it was a closely battled contest\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He went on: &#8216;I hit up the boys and said &#8216;right I&#8217;m doing a meat grinder&#8217;, a fight simulator, straight away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I did that then did sparring rounds this morning. And if anyone can do this, it&#8217;s me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;A lot of people talk the talk, not many walk the walk. But I get to prove once again, I&#8217;ve got them big cojones. It&#8217;s crazy. It really is.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I got told about Charles having to pull out yesterday (Wednesday) and we said &#8216;alright let&#8217;s do it&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I just said &#8220;make sure it&#8217;s worth it and let&#8217;s do it&#8221;. Obviously this is a pretty crazy thing to do.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There&#8217;s not many fighters out there that would do this, especially in my position.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But I always say that I am that guy. I am the guy that will do anytime, anywhere, any weight.\u00a0&#8216;This is the opportunity to prove that again against a tough, game opponent.<\/p>\n<p>And the UFC featherweight champion went on to explain how he&#8217;d thought he would not have the chance to be an underdog again against Makhachev.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I thought I had my moment. That big moment with the whole underdog story \u2013 &#8216;there is no way, he doesn&#8217;t stand a chance&#8217; \u2013 and we thought we did it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I remember thinking just a few days ago &#8216;I&#8217;m not going to get that moment if I fight him again&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/12\/10\/76467401-0-image-a-11_1697103326473.jpg\" height=\"689\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Volkanovski said he went straight for hard training after accepting the bout\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I won&#8217;t be this crazy underdog, people have seen what I can do so they will back me, think I can get the job done.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;But now with 12 days notice, I&#8217;m (back) in the same position. A lot of people will be &#8216;there&#8217;s no way, short notice he&#8217;s crazy&#8217;. So it&#8217;s an opportunity. A lot of people won&#8217;t do these things. And would I prefer a better camp? Yeah, of course.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;You know what I&#8217;m like with my preparation. I like to make sure. But I&#8217;m the man for the job. If anyone can do this on 12 days notice, off the couch as they say, it&#8217;s me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I get to go and shock the world in how many days? Eleven days? Luckily I&#8217;m always training&#8217;. That fight made me a better fighter. Honestly my training after that (fight), my takedown defence, my scrambling ability, the way I understand the ground, I learned so much and I carried it through my last camp.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I carried it through even while I&#8217;ve been training after my last fight. As soon as I got through the surgery I was able to do a fair bit.<\/p>\n<p>He continued: &#8216;So again, crazy turn of events. But it&#8217;s exciting for me. Let&#8217;s go and finish this guy. No pressure on me, baby. No pressure at all. All the pressure is on him.\u00a0I&#8217;m coming off the couch.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;The Great&#8217; admitted he thought his next action would be in 2024 before he received the call, adding: &#8216;(So when) they said it to me and I said &#8216;wow&#8217;,&#8217; he grinned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I did not expect that. It wasn&#8217;t &#8216;I&#8217;ll stay in camp just in case&#8217;. Obviously I&#8217;d had my surgery and had until January &#8212; I didn&#8217;t want to wait but they said we can&#8217;t do anything else.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I was starting to get a little bored. So now we&#8217;ll make things exciting. I didn&#8217;t want to wait and now I don&#8217;t have to. So it&#8217;s meant to be and all adds to the story.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Me going to Abu Dhabi, him with a full camp \u2026 people are going to think I&#8217;m crazy for doing this but I get to shock the world and I can&#8217;t wait to go out there and do it.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/12\/10\/76467345-0-image-a-10_1697103292023.jpg\" height=\"636\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Makhachev is effectively on home turf as he has so many fans in Abu Dhabi\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/mma\/article-12622715\/Alexander-Volkanovski-admits-fighting-Islam-Makhachev-11-days-notice-CRAZY-jokes-hes-couple-drinks-time-claims-going-couch-shock-world-UFC-294.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander Volkanovski admits fighting Islam Makhachev on 11 days notice is &#8216;CRAZY&#8217; and jokes he&#8217;s &#8216;had a couple of drinks&#8217; during time off but claims he is going to get off the couch and shock the world at UFC 294 Alexander Volkanovski has accepted a late notice fight against Islam Makhachev Australian is rematching Dagestani [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Volkanovski says he will &amp;apos;go from the couch to shocking the world&amp;apos; - Sports Life Tale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportslifetale.com\/mma\/volkanovski-says-he-will-go-from-the-couch-to-shocking-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Volkanovski says he will &amp;apos;go from the couch to shocking the world&amp;apos; 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