Ilia Topuria might be the most confident title challenger Alexander Volkanovski has ever faced.
In his first pay-per-view main event, and first world title fight, the 27-year-old breezed through hours of media interviews and press conferences with ease this week.
When I asked him: “If you win this weekend…” the Spaniard cut me off and corrected the question. “When I win this weekend.”
The 27-year-old is so confident that he’s already planning his first title defence, which he wants to be held at his beloved Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium against Conor McGregor.
And with a string of highlight reel knockouts to his name, he should be confident.
It wasn’t until he walked onstage for the fight week press conference that cracks appeared.
As the delirious crowd drowned him out with endless boos, he immediately grew angry. The cool exterior of the dapper fighter wearing nice suits and posing for social media photos with red wine and roses vanished.
Flustered, he swore at the crowd, pulled the finger and yelled at Volkanovski.
It could mean one of two things come fight night.
Topuria could channel that aggression into one of his notorious knockouts. Or he could let the occasion get to him, and melt under the pressure like he did at the press conference.
The first option makes him one of the most dangerous opponents Volkanovski has ever faced. Where past opponents like Max Holloway is a cardio machine with elite level striking, Brian Ortega is one of the best jiu jitsu practitioners in the UFC, and Yair Rodriguez can knock you out with shots you don’t see coming, none of them possess the kind of power Topuria does.
And that, according to one former UFC champion, could be the difference.
“Volkanovski wasn’t knocking people out until recently,” Henry Cejudo told this masthead. “If he goes in there and trades with the Matador, Topuria has more power.
“This dude puts people out, and that’s the difference. This dude’s got a little more fury in his punches.”
Cejudo wants to see Volkanovski use his footwork better than he did against Islam Makhachev in their rematch in October too.
“Lateral movement is the key,” Cejudo said. “Bring those fakes, inside kicks, outside kicks, and slowly bring in the hands once you break that foundation, then it’s his fight.
“But if he’s too linear, like he was against Islam, where he was just waiting, I think it’s Topuria’s fight.
“It’s in Volkanovski’s hands. He has the ability to make the adjustments, we’ve seen him change.”
Another key adjustment heading out of Volkanovski’s knockout loss to Makhachev and into this weekend’s featherweight defence is the re-introduction of Eugene Bareman.
The head coach at Auckland’s City Kickboxing, Bareman felt taking the short-notice Makhachev rematch was a bad idea, and with prior engagements, he was unable to travel to Abu Dhabi to corner Volkanovski.
This time around though, he’ll be back in Volk’s corner.
“He’ll be here, he comes in the next couple of days,” Volkanovski told this masthead on Wednesday. “He’s busy and they were doing other stuff fight week, but he’ll be here in the corner for fight day.”
Volkanovski spent several training camps at City Kickboxing during his run to the title, but does all his training at his Windang gym these days.
Bareman, who guided Israel Adesanya to the middleweight title, is a vital voice in the corner, working alongside Volkanovski’s longtime coach Joe Lopez.
“Everyone does their part, we’re a team and we stick together,” Volkanovski said. “We have our group chats where we’re game-planning, sending sparring footage and going over things we can change.
“Everyone puts their two cents in.”
Originally published as UFC 298: Follow live as Alexander Volkanovski takes on Ilia Topuria, key moments from huge card