Alexander Volkanovski’s coach Eugene Bareman has revealed that the former champion’s concussion symptoms following his KO loss to Ilia Topuria at UFC 299 are not as bad as the ones he suffered following his knockout defeat against Islam Makhachev last year.
“In terms of like, his symptoms, he doesn’t have any symptoms, which was not the case in the last knockout,” Bareman told Combat TV. “There’s so many variables when it comes to having a knockout and how many symptoms you suffer and all of that. I don’t know the science behind it, and I’m not going to begin to try to understand it.
“But he seems to not be as affected by this concussion as he was by the last one. I wouldn’t be able to tell you why. He definitely needs to rest. He needs to rest his head. He needs to be sensible, but he also will be very keen to get that rematch this year.”
The 35-year-old Volkanovski had been eager to return to action as soon as possible following his 1st KO loss to Makhachev on October 21st last year, telling the UFC to “keep me busy” because he didn’t do well when he was on the sidelines without a fight to train for.
Bearing in mind that he was suffering from concussion symptoms at the time that was clearly a bad idea, and perhaps the four-month gap in-between then and his next fight against Topuria wasn’t enough given that he went on to suffer the 2nd KO loss of his career, although to be fair his opponent is known for his stopping power.
Regardless of whether he’s suffering any symptoms this time around it does feel like after suffering back-to-back KO’s in such a short space of time that the former champ needs to take an extended break this time around.
Whether Volkanovski will be on-board with that idea though, and whether he can resist the urge to fall into bad habits while sidelined (after admitting to drinking daily prior to his short-notice call-up against Makhachev last year) remains to be seen though, and so those close to him like Bareman will have to do their best to guide him through the most difficult time in his career so far.
