Alexander Volkanovski faces Ilia Topuria in the main event of UFC 298 live on pay-per-view from Honda Center in Anaheim, CA on Saturday, February 17. The Australian champion makes the sixth defense of his featherweight title against Germany-born unbeaten Spanish contender.
Volkanovski (26-3) is also looking to return to winning ways and eyes to make it in a dominant style. The 35-year-old Sydney native got KO’d in his short notice rematch against reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev last October in Abu Dhabi.
Stepping inside the Octagon in Anaheim, Volkanovski meets No. 3-ranked featherweight contender Topuria (14-0). The 27-year-old is coming off the win by unanimous decision against Josh Emmett last June in Jacksonville, FL.
“I want him to be like ‘I’m nowhere near this level’, which is going to be very embarrassing after all the talk he’s been doing,” Alexander Volkanovski said in the ESPN’s “UFC Fight Camp” feature with Megan Anderson. “So, the polite way of saying it ‘I’m just going to teach him a lesson’, but he will be embarrassed.”
“He will be eating his own words. He will he will literally have to go back to the drawing board and realize ‘all right that’s a whole another level, how do I get there?'”
“So he’s going to thank me later when everything’s said and done he’s going to thank me for really humbling him.”
“If he ever wants to be a great champion or anything like that, that obviously doesn’t start anytime soon, but maybe after I do what I plan on doing, maybe he learns a bit and then he will bounce back from that. And then he can thank me for it.”
In the co-main event of UFC 298, New Zealand-Australian former middleweight champion and No. 3 Robert Whittaker (24-7) takes on former title challenger and No. 6 Paulo Costa (14-2) of Brazil.