After a tough training session recently, featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski admitted to fans on Instagram Live that he was questioning whether his Covid issues from a few months ago may still be having an impact on his cardio.
“Just did a strength session and was on the Airdyne bike, the assault bike,” Volkanovski said on Instagram.
“Tell you what, that got uncomfortable,” Volkanovski continued as he clutched at his upper chest. “I don’t know if it’s this bloody cold air in Australia because it’s freezing here; we came from Vegas where it’s boiling hot. We tried to do this outside, the assault bike … it absolutely rocked me. I don’t know if it’s because of the COVID or it’s just the cold weather but damn it trashed me.”
Volkanovski had to withdraw from his scheduled title defense against Brian Ortega back in March due to testing positive for Covid, and it took a heavy toll on him at the time.
The 32-year-old had previously revealed how he’d started to have pain in his lungs and had been coughing up blood, which led to him being hospitalized on two separate occasions and being diagnosed with covid-related pneumonia.
Volkanovski recovered enough to go and coach The Ultimate Fighter 29 opposite Ortega in recent weeks, but by the sounds of things he’s still not firing on all cylinders, so it’s probably just as well that their rescheduled fight now looks like it may happen in September, which will give him a few more months to get back to full fitness.
