“Gonna see a better version” – Alexander Volkanovski makes his pick for Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington at UFC 296
UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski recently took to his official YouTube channel and gave his thoughts on what he thinks is likely to transpire at UFC 296.
Saturday's event will be the company's last pay-per-view of 2023, and the card is stacked from top to bottom. Closing out the show in the main event will be Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington, as they battle for Edwards' welterweight strap.
Speaking on the fight, Volkanovski said:
"I know that where Usman would hold him [Edwards] and sort of stay put in certain positions, Colby Covington is going to keep trying to reap him and get him off balance and do all these things. But, I believe Leon is in so much better condition and he is in a way better position than even when he was in that last fight. He is in a much better position now, so I guarantee you you're going to see a better version of Leon this weekend. He's going to be more dangerous on the feet, he's going to be even better in the takedown defense."
Alexander Volkanovski went on to add that Colby Covington will be a huge threat and will "be there the whole fight," but gave the edge to Leon Edwards nonetheless.
Check out Volkanovski's comments here (8:03):
Alexander Volkanovski believes he will "take out" Ilia Topuria, calls him "easy money"
Volkanovski recently reacted to a tweet which revealed that his teammate, Justin Van Heerden, had called out Alexsandre Topuria, Ilia Topuria's brother, for a fight at UFC 298. The February event will be headlined by a title fight between 'The Great' and 'El Matador'.
The post read:
"Volk’s teammate Justin Van Heerdencalls out Aleksandre Topuria for #UFC298 it would be cool to see Topuria brothers fight on same card."
Volkanovski replied:
"Let’s make it happen. Watch us take out the Topuria brothers…easy money"
Alexander Volkanovski is coming off a brutal KO loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 294. After his unsuccessful attempt at moving up to lightweight, it looks like Volkanovski's focus is on defending his 145-pound strap for the foreseeable future and cementing himself as the greatest to do it at featherweight.