Alexander Volkanovski was stood, completely baffled, inside a Wollongong gym last October as he tried to pass one of those regulation NRL concussion tests.
Problem was, he couldn’t.
Or at least not this morning.
Which was no small thing given it had already been six days, and counting, since the UFC champ had been knocked out for the first time in his life by that Islam Makhachev headkick.
All of which confused Australia’s UFC featherweight king.
“Because I’d never even been concussed before,” he concedes.
Huh?
“Honestly, never,” Volk continues with a look suggesting even he can barely believe what is an unlikely claim for any fighter, let alone the longest reigning current UFC champion.
Throw in too his years spent climbing up through local shows, enduring countless sparring sessions, even all those collisions a man endures while bashing about as ‘Footy Volk’ with Warilla Gorillas.
“But,” the champ shrugs, “I’d never been concussed before that night”.
UFC 298: VOLKANOVSKI VS TOPURIA | SUN 18 FEB | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the new exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View events!
Volk & Whittaker chat upcoming opponents | 02:35
Kicking back now only days out from his UFC 298 headliner against Ilia Topuria, Volkanovski is talking Fox Sports Australia through what has to be one of the greatest conundrums in all of combat sports: Are fighters ever the same after being kayoed?
Which to be fair, is no easy chat.
For how often would you like to relive that Makhachev headkick if, say, it had been your melon relieved of its senses only three months ago?
Sure, Volk was coming off the couch on 12 days notice.
That, and again moving up to rematch a Dagestani powerhouse who hadn’t only bested him earlier that year, but now edges — body after piled up body — towards the greatest win streak in UFC history.
Why this weekend is one of the most pivotal ever for two Aussie favourites
‘The UFC didn’t want you to do that’: Volkanovski’s bold reveal to cocky rival
‘Teach him a lesson’: Volk promises to ‘humble’ rival – and wants another Islam rematch
Still the way Volkanovski was finished that night, it now has many fans, fighters, even Hall of Famers like Daniel Cormier questioning if, maybe, his time at the top is – gasp — done.
Certainly, there is no doubting the brutality of Makhachev’s finish at UFC 294.
With Volkanovski so badly concussed that, six days later, he failed the SCAT5 test that NRL players must pass during games, after being rocked, to get back on the field.
Same as the champ also made headlines soon after his Abu Dhabi loss, when during a teary press conference he confessed to battling a range of mental health issues.
So again, are fighters ever the same after being kayoed?
More than anything else, this is the question hanging over Volkanovski’s sixth title defence.
A truth proved by the fact it took only that one whirring shin to shift the champ from greatest fighter on the planet – and among the greatest ever – to now being covered in more question marks than the Riddler.
Which isn’t our assessment either, but his.
“Oh, I know people are doubting me,” Volkanovski concedes of the chatter surrounding his build toward Topuria, a cocky, undefeated rival who many are tipping for the upset.
“But this idea that I’ll be different, fight different, I actually find it funny …”
Heavyweight GOAT touches down in Sydney | 02:09
At which point, Volkanovski leans forward on the lounge to explain how the greatest knock on fighters returning from big kayos, it’s how they suddenly fight more cautiously.
More tempered.
As if forever wary of again being sent to the Land Of Wind And Ghosts.
“But I’ve always been calculated,” Volk insists.
“Always fought that way.
“Because I know with so many of my opponents that is their one chance, the puncher’s chance.
“So the knockout doesn’t concern me.
“Unless somebody brings up the knockout in interviews, mate, I’m not even thinking about it.”
No mental demons as Volk chasing Islam | 02:11
At which point we should note Volkanovski is also no stranger to overcoming odds, either.
Take for example, three years ago, and that COVID case so severe he was hospitalised prior to a Las Vegas championship bout while coughing up blood.
Or two years before that, when heading home after beating Jose Aldo in Brazil, and ‘The Great’ was forced to make an emergency stop in Chile suffering a bacterial infection drastic enough for suggestions his leg could have been amputated.
Want more?
Well, how about his preparation for Yair Rodriguez last July?
Back when Volk was so troubled by a chipped bone in his left elbow, he not only couldn’t straighten said joint throughout the fight but underwent surgery immediately after yet another title win.
Or think that Brian Ortego fight in 2021, when the King of Windang was so deep in a famed ‘T City’ choke …well, what happened next was akin to Steve McQueen jumping his motorbike over those barbed wire fences in the The Great Escape.
Hell, you can even go all the way back six years when Volkanovski was fighting while enduring chronic back problems so severe, he was unable to even pick his daughter’s toys off the floor.
“I was getting bulging discs, sciatica,” he explained for us once. “My back was locking up so badly I began fearing one wrong move and I’d be in a wheelchair.”
Worse, he had no idea what was causing it.
“My back would flare up and I’d be out for weeks, even months,” he said. “I thought my career was over.”
‘Can’t wait’ Volk amped for his rebound | 00:57
Yet rather than walk out of the UFC, Volkanovski walked into the practice of Wollongong medicos Mick Baines and Chris Jaffrey – a decision on which so much has hinged.
After initially helping the fighter overcome back issues, the boys from South Coast Health Hub have since joined ‘Team Volk’ and not only helped him through all the issues mentioned above, but become a key — if largely anonymous — part of his rise into one of the world’s greatest fighters.
Which is worth noting when you ask if Volkanovski can ever be the same.
Understanding that from the moment that Makhachev headkick landed, these two men – Baines, a physiotherapist, and Jaffrey, an exercise physiologist – have again been bringing the Windang native back to his best, this time assisted by some of the nation’s leading concussion practitioners.
Think the likes of St George Illawarra’s High Performance manager Dan Lawson, Australian cricket team doctor Leigh Golding and Newcastle Knights chief medical officer Jin Lee.
Lee is also the man who accompanied Knights star Kalyn Ponga to Canada for treatment during his own concussion battles, and works closely with NRL concussion advisers Andrew Gardner and Chris Levi – who have themselves assisted with leaguies like Boyd Cordner, Tim Glasby and Luke Keary.
Baines also boasts 20 years experience with both NRL clubs and NSW Origin sides and was there in Abu Dhabi the night of Volkanovski’s KO loss.
“And I still remember sitting in that press conference listening to Alex discuss his mental health and knowing ‘that’s concussion talking’,” he says.
“But because Alex, he had never been concussed, initially he didn’t understand what he was feeling.
“So we explained that this wasn’t him having a mental breakdown, it was him being concussed.
“I remember, six days after being knocked out in Abu Dhabi, we had him undergo a Scat5 test – and he failed it.
“Was still symptomatic.
“He looked at me and said ‘I thought this was just a mild concussion’.
“I said ‘mate, there is no such thing as a mild concussion’.
“It’s a brain injury.
“And all brain injuries heal at a different rate.
“He said ‘OK you build the program and tell me what I can do’.”
Initially standing Volkanovski down from all contact for 30 days after fighting, Jaffrey also scheduled appointments with a vestibular physio to assess and work through those parts of the champ’s brain that were impacted.
The pair also liaised regularly with their team of concussion experts as Volkanovski worked, first, back into sparring short spurts of three rounds.
Which, you should also know, has always been the way for this trio.
Which is why the champ who once considered himself one wrong lift from retirement, can now trap bar deadlift 190kg and hip thrust 200kg.
And all while weighing 77kg.
“So pound for pound,” Jaffrey says, “he would be up there with every player in the NRL.”
It is also this partnership, a mix of hard work and meticulous planning, that sees Volk never miss a day of training, even at 35, while also maintaining his relentless, high-volume style inside the cage.
Ask Jaffrey, and he praises the fighter’s ability to hold maximum effort on assault bikes, describing it as “better, and by far, than any other athlete I’ve seen”.
For similar reasons, the highly sought-after S&C coach has also had to ban Volkanovski from competing in a grandstand stair run he uses for triathletes, NRL players and fellow UFC fighters.
“Because Volk doesn’t just sprint up the stairs,” Jaffrey says, “he sprints down them too.
“He realises that’s where he can really catch up time.
“Problem is, he shows absolutely no self preservation.
“He was sprinting down so fast it actually became dangerous.”
Asked about their most enlightening camp and Jaffrey points to preparing for Rodriguez with that busted elbow, stating: “It was absolutely amazing to see Alex adapt and change to get around his injury.
“I’ve never seen another athlete in my life who is so versatile.
“He hurts his thumb, he will change grips so he doesn’t have to use it.
“Elbow hurts? He changes position so that he doesn’t have to fully extend, or mixes up the way he exits so that he doesn’t have to throw certain things.
“It’s amazing.”
UFC 298: VOLKANOVSKI VS TOPURIA | SUN 18 FEB | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports. Main Event on Kayo Sports and Foxtel is the new exclusive home of UFC Pay-Per-View events!
Baines, meanwhile, says: “His output is terrifying.
“That’s why there is only one of him.
“It’s like the old Johnny Wilkinson yarn too about his always doing goalkicking practice on a Wednesday.
“And the year Christmas was a Wednesday, he went and kicked.
“Alex is the same. Built different.
“We’re working with someone who doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.”
#Alexander #Volkanovskis #big #addition #team #ahead #Ilia #Topuria #title #fight #Islam #Makhachev #knockout #concussion
