Former UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski successfully defended the 145-pound title five times and owns the second-longest winning streak in the division with 11 consecutive victories.
Australia has produced many UFC fighters, however, the first to win a belt in the UFC was none other than Volkanovski, who began his sports career as a rugby player. The Wollongong native took mixed martial arts at a late age but was a fast learner and a natural in the fight business.
After conquering the Australian scene, Volk made his way to the U.S. to compete in the UFC. His first bout against Yusuke Kazuwa at UFC Fight Night 101 in Melbourne was at lightweight. Although he won that bout, Alex decided to compete at 145 pounds moving forward.
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He won his next six fights, including a stunning unanimous decision win over the inaugural UFC featherweight king Jose Aldo at UFC 237. The victory over the former champion earned him a crack at the 145-pound belt which was then held by American Max Holloway. At UFC 245, Volkanovski outpointed Holloway to win the UFC featherweight championship and become the first Australian-born fighter to capture UFC gold. But Volk wasn’t done making history.
The former Rugby star went on to successfully defend the title five times, including twice against Holloway at UFC 251 in 2020 and UFC 276 in 2022.
Volkanovski’s knockout win over Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 was his 11th straight win in the featherweight division, earning him the 2nd longest winning streak in the history of the 145-pound weight class, just two behind Holloway’s all-time mark. It also marked his sixth win in a UFC featherweight title fight, also the second-most in the history of the weight class.
“I keep mentioning challenging yourself and all that type of stuff, but you need to do that — that’s how you get better,” Volkanovski told UFC. “I’m always challenging myself, in the gym, with fights. If you want to be successful in anything, you need to do that — you need to go through adversities, you need to put yourself in challenging times, you need to put that type of work in.”
The challenge for Volkanovski was moving up to the next higher-weight class and fighting for a second belt. And so he challenged Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 and nearly defied the odds with a heroic effort that earned him an immediate rematch. Unfortunately, things did not go well in their rematch as Volk was knocked out in the very first round.
In his most recent fight, Volkanovski finally suffered his first defeat as a featherweight in the UFC, when he surrendered the featherweight belt to Spain’s Ilia Topuria at the main event of UFC 298. Despite the loss, Volk will always be remembered as one of the most dominant champions in the history of the featherweight division.
Overall, he has a record of 26-4 with 13 knockouts and 3 submission wins. In the UFC, Volk posted a 12-3 mark with 5 knockouts, making him the best fighter ever to come from The Land Down Under.