Alexander Volkanovski’s coach has revealed that the featherweight champion almost didn’t make it to his UFC 325 title rematch with Diego Lopes this past weekend in Sydney, Australia after suffering a shoulder injury in training.
The 37-year-old Volkanovski had eluded to a tough training camp during his post-fight interview in the Octagon after emerging with another convincing unanimous decision win over Lopes, but hadn’t gone into specifics.
“It ain’t getting any easier, I can tell you that,” Volkanovski had told Daniel Cormier in the Octagon. “Camp, you know was, a lot of things going on there, but we pushed through. As I always say, adversity is a privilege. I love it. Sometimes when things go wrong I’m like, ‘Lets go’. If it’s more of a challenge then it fires me up even more.”
Volkanovski’s coach Joe Lopez has since revealed that the star actually had to contend with a worrying shoulder injury just a month out from the fight.
“To be fair, Alex, four weeks ago, we didn’t think he was going to fight,” Lopez told Cormier. “He pulled his shoulder out. Really. He’s been compromised for the last four weeks with a busted shoulder.”
Despite his pre-fight woes, Volkanovski showed no signs of being hindered during his five-rounder with Lopes as he outclassed his rival in the striking department to cruise to victory and successfully defend his title.
Lopez says Volkanovski also did a good job of overcoming the mental battle as well as the physical one in the match-up as he puts more distance between himself and the back-to-back KO losses he suffered a couple of years ago.
“Like I’ve been saying, after the first fight, Volk was sort of second-guessing himself the whole of the first Diego camp,” Lopez said. “With this camp, Volk was back to himself. He was confident, didn’t have to say anything, it was just old Volk back again.”
There had been talk that Volkanovski could have retired if he’d lost on Saturday night, but his victory has put those rumors to bed for now, and his coach thinks there’s still a lot of tread left on the tires.
“Maybe we can get another four [years] out of him,” Lopez said.
