It looks like Alexander Volkanovski can’t pass up the opportunity to secure a spot on the Ultimate Fighting Championship card on short notice.
Volkanovski revealed that he recently stepped up to save the upcoming UFC 303 card. Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler were originally scheduled to main event UFC 303 on June 29 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but “Notorious” pulled out due to a broken toe. Rumors that the bout might be canceled had been floating around for a week before it was officially announced. As soon as Volkanovski heard the rumors, he put his hand up for the short-notice matchup at UFC 303.
“A lot of stuff happened on this card, and obviously Conor McGregor was going to be the pick, and I put my hand up,” Volkanovski said recently on his YouTube channel. “I said, ‘Do you need somebody?’ And, of course, like you, we were all hearing the whispers … whispers that they were looking for a replacement for McGregor, and so I said, ‘Hey, do you need somebody? You know somebody.'”
Volkanovski’s last time in a UFC main event didn’t go well. He replaced Charles Oliveira 11 days before the bout to prepare for a rematch with Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 in October 2023. Volkanovski first fought Makhachev at UFC 284 in February 2023 and lost by unanimous decision. Although Volkanovski bounced back with a TKO win over Yair Rodriguez, many believed it was too soon for “The Great” to rematch Makhachev. Volkanovski was knocked out by a brutal head kick in the first round.
Volkanovski then lost the featherweight title in another brutal knockout loss to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 in February of this year, leading to speculation that Volkanovski may have bounced back too quickly from his knockout loss to Makhachev.
Even the UFC advised Volkanovski to take it easy for a bit when he called for help this time, but Volkanovski believes the UFC were concerned about his health and respects the UFC’s decision.
“Some people think I’m crazy, but yeah, I’m just excited to get back in training and get back in training again,” Volkanovski said. “So, you know, just putting your hand up over little things like that, but that’s not me. I wasn’t contacted. UFC was like, ‘You’re a savage, but we’ll let you know if we need you,’ and then they were like, ‘Let’s take a break.’ So, they obviously respected that, which was good. I kept saying every day, ‘I’m serious, let me know,’ and they obviously stuck to their guns and I knew they were going to take care of me, so I’ve got to respect that.”
