Alexander Volkanovski made it clear he wants a rematch with Ilia Topuria next after losing his featherweight belt to him at UFC 298 on Saturday night, but after witnessing how the fight went former long-time UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is highly sceptical that the outcome would be any different.
“I watched his (Volkanovski’s) press conference, and he still seems bubbly,” Johnson noted on his YouTube channel. “There’s a spirit about him where he wants to continue to fight, but the question is, does he do an immediate rematch? For me, after listening to the press conference, Volkanovski was like, ‘Man, I was going to start adding more things to the fight.’
“When I sit here, if Ilia gets the opportunity to touch you, you’re going to sleep. So, I don’t know what other tool set he was going to bring to the fight to stop Ilia from getting to him. If they do a rematch, all Ilia has to do is touch him. He has to run away from Ilia Topuria for 25 minutes. … I truly feel like Ilia Topuria is a bad matchup for Alex Volkanovski because he doesn’t get frustrated.”
Volkanovski has fought and beaten a who’s who of 145lb talent over the years, including the likes of Max Holloway, Brian Ortega, Jose Aldo and Yair Rodriguez, but it seems that Johnson feels that he’s finally met his nemesis in Topuria, with matters only being made worse by the fact that his chin has now been dented after two KO’s in a row.
“I’d be curious to see how he (Volkanovski) would change the game plan because if Ilia touches you, he’s going to go out. Especially since his last few fights he’s gotten knocked out. You look at Wanderlei Silva, you look at Chuck Liddell, once you get knocked out and you get knocked again and again, that button goes quicker and quicker and quicker. It happened last night.”
