"Pretty silly on my behalf" - Alexander Volkanovski on his comments about Max Holloway, admits he was affected by "what haters said"
Alexander Volkanovski recently walked back his claims about Max Holloway faking an injury, revealing that he was influenced by haters online.
Volkanovski and Holloway were initially set to compete in a trilogy fight at UFC 272. However, 'Blessed' was forced to withdraw from the fight, which led to the UFC booking a title bout between the Australian champion and 'The Korean Zombie'.
A few weeks later, though, Holloway declared that he was cleared to compete once again and offered to be the backup fighter for the upcoming championship bout. Taking to Twitter, Volkanovski had some harsh words for the man he has already beaten twice, writing:
@BlessedMMA wants to be the backup fighter for the fight he was originally scheduled to fight. so in other words…he was never injured. Just hoping he doesn’t have to fight me or fight me while I’m preparing for someone…but hey “if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying”... NO
…NO@BlessedMMA wants to be the backup fighter for the fight he was originally scheduled to fight.🤦🏻♂️ so in other words…he was never injured. Just hoping he doesn’t have to fight me or fight me while I’m preparing for someone…but hey “if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying”😆…NO
Speaking to Submission Radio in a recent interview, Volkanovski claimed that at the time of Holloway's withdrawal, he found himself in a frustrating situation. 'The Great' said:
"It was frustrating because at the time I really wanted that fight, you know what I mean and once you heard he got injured, especially when they announced it earlier, it was all a bit confusing and frustrating. So you see my frustration obviously, I wanted to tweet and have a little shot at Max and that was the only reason, which was pretty silly on my behalf, to be honest. That just shows you where sort of my head was at back then, you know what I mean? That's something that I've really been working on lately."
Watch Alexander Volkanovski's interview with Submission Radio here:
Alexander Volkanovski claimed that he has always cared about haters' opinions
In the same interview, Alexander Volkanovski added that he has always been a people pleaser, as he generally wants to have everyone on his side. The featherweight champion even admitted that he used to take every opinion to heart but has improved on it since then.
Volkanovski told Submission Radio:
"I'm such a people pleaser right? I always want people on my side and when they're not, I take whatever they say to heart and all that type of stuff, so, I've always cared what haters said, like what all these people would say. So I always felt like I had something to prove and you know, wanted to get back at him but now I literally don't give a f about any of that."
Volkanovski will be looking to defend his title for the third time in Jacksonville, Florida, on April 9th. The last time the featherweight champion defended his belt was at UFC 266 against Brian Ortega last year.