Despite having a majority of the fighting world betting against him, Alexander Volkanovski went all 5 rounds against Diego Lopes at UFC 314 and won via a unanimous decision, becoming the featherweight champion for the second time. The world had really good reason to believe in Lopes’ victory before UFC 314. Drake activated his curse by betting around $545K on Volkanovski to win. On the other hand, there was the featherweight curse playing against ‘The Great’. Yet, the 2-time featherweight champion proved that “adversity is a privilege.” That’s what Volkanovski’s coach, Joe Lopez, recently weighed in on.
Following Volkanovski’s win, Lopez had a brief talk with Submission Radio’s Denis Shkuratov. Therein, the coach said, “The most important thing that we can take away from this is like, everybody was writing Alex off, you know, saying he was too old, he’s coming off two knockouts.” That was when Shkuratov asked about the curse. You see, the Australian champion is the only man to have won the championship belt after the age of 35 in the division.
Well, prior to the fight at UFC 314, even ‘The American Gangster’ Chael Sonnen claimed that when fighters get knocked down, they start questioning themselves. And Volkanovski had lost two back-to-back fights before UFC 314. Sonnen stood in the notion of Lopes winning the bout via a KO. Although he did confirm that there was no way ‘The Great’ would lose via decision, his words turned out to be the perfect motivation for the Australian. Lopez continued, “But there’s a lot of things that worked in his favor as well, you know, that we were going through. You know, like Chael Sonnen had backed Diego. That’s always a good sign we were going to win.”
Despite having multiple curses working against him, ‘The Great’ proved why he was worthy of the moniker. He not only restricted the Brazilian star from knocking him out, but also exerted dominance for the majority of the 25 minutes. And in the end, he couldn’t stop himself from getting a bit emotional. Let’s see what the Australian champion had to say in his post-fight interview.
Alexander Volkanovski relays an emotional message after UFC 314 win
Immediately after Bruce Buffer declared that Volkanovski was the new featherweight champion of the world, congratulations showered on him as Joe Rogan brought in the microphone for an interview inside the Octagon. ‘The Great’ declared that it was good to be back. After saying, “adversity is a privilege,” Volkanovski declared that he had promised his daughters that he was going to bring the belt back with him. Needless to say, there was no way he could have lost after that.
Later on, Volkanovski said, “The message was a lot of people counted me out, coming off two knockout losses and the 35-year-old curse. I’m 36 years old, big break, and coming back and beat a gun like Diego Lopes, who came and bring it. It’s good to be back and for everyone watching – adversity is a privilege. This moment is incredible.”
Of course, it’s pretty rare for someone to break the Drake curse. But Alexander Volkanovski had the skills, courage, and determination to do so. He didn’t let his previous defeats bug him. Instead, he seemed to have turned them all into motivation and made sure that he was above it all.
What are your thoughts on Volkanovski breaking the typical curses in the UFC? Do you think Sonnen should have stood in support of ‘The Great’ right from the beginning? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.
The post After Career Career-Ending Verdict, Team Alexander Volkanovski Drags Chael Sonnen’s Controversial Statement After Breaking Drake and UFC’s Curse appeared first on EssentiallySports.
