"It doesn't get any deeper than that"- Alexander Volkanovski on what it was like to nearly get choked out by Brian Ortega
UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski recently recalled his UFC 266 scrap against Brian Ortega. Volkanovski, who was caught in a series of extremely tight chokes, revealed what he learned from the ordeal.
While in conversation with Kevin Iole from Yahoo! Sports, 'The Great' offered fans some insight into what he took away from his UFC 266 outing. He admitted that his resilience against Ortega proved that he could weather any choke attempt in a fight.
"I felt it. It doesn't get any deeper than that and me being, you know, doing, well, you know, things that we worked on and not panicking and making that enough space, you know what I mean? That really helped me. Even in the gym, so now being in them positions, you know, I'm cruising, you know what I mean? It's very hard to submit me with chokes. Like it always was hard. Always is very hard. But now, it's just even harder where I always feel like their arms are going to always gas out before I go out."
That third round between Alexander Volkanovski and Brian Ortega in full to start your day.
Amazing. https://t.co/jb44l7oyJ1
Volkanovski and Ortega were featured in the main event of UFC 266 with the UFC featherweight title hanging in the balance. Volkanovski managed to outperform 'T-City' over the course of five rounds to walk away with the unanimous decision win.
Alexander Volkanovski open to competing for a second title
In the same interaction with Kevin Iole, Alexander Volkanovski opened up about his ambition of etching his name in MMA history as a two division champion and competing for the UFC lightweight title.
"It's definitely obviously a question that people ask me a lot and that's something that I definitely look into. But it's not something that I, you know, I'm thinking I'm going to do next fight or anything, you know. I'm staying busy this year but I don't know if the lightweight is in the picture this year and if it is, it's right again because i want three fights this year so you know you go out you do your work you know what I plan on doing."
Check out Alexander Volkanovski's full interaction with Kevin Iole below:
Alexander Volkanovski is currently scheduled to lock horns with Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273 on April 9. The fight is set to take place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.