Alex Volkanovski Australian UFC champion reveals he’s moving his young family to America | Daily Mail Online
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Australia’s greatest ever UFC fighter has had enough of the country’s lockdowns ruining his training and is plotting to move his family to the United States.
Alex Volkanovski, nicknamed ‘Alexander The Great’, beat American Brian Ortega to retain the UFC Featherweight Championship on Sunday in a five-round thriller fans are labelling the ‘best ever’.
The 32-year-old, who lives with his wife Emma and two young daughters on the NSW South Coast, spoke to Daily Mail Australia from Las Vegas less than 48 hours after the epic bout – his 20th straight victory.
Volkanovski opened up about escaping a ‘guillotine chokehold’ that should have left him unconscious, the unlikely post-match act that infuriated his wife and how he’s thinking of leaving the country behind.
‘We haven’t made any decisions yet (about leaving Australia) but we need to get exemptions to train, exemptions to travel, having to do quarantine,’ Volkanovski said.
‘I need to do what’s best for me and my family. We love Australia, but it’s the cards we’ve been dealt.’
Alex Volkanovski beat American Brian Ortega to retain the UFC Featherweight Championship on Sunday at UFC266 in a fight fans are labelling the ‘best ever’
Volkanovski says Australia’s ongoing and draconian lockdown laws may see him relocate his young daughters Ariana and Ariel to the USA as he chases his UFC dream
The proud Aussie, who entered the ring on Sunday to Men At Work’s Land Down Under, finishes his post-fight press conference with a shoey
‘There’s a lot that needs to go into it. Right now my daughters are getting home schooled, but with these quarantines, there’s a lot happening,’ he told Daily Mail Australia
On Sunday afternoon, Volkanovski defeated Ortega on points after five rounds from the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas after twice escaping deadly submission attempts from the jiu-jitsu master.
The proud Aussie, who entered to Men At Work’s iconic anthem Land Down Under, has already had to undergo hotel quarantine when returning from America after battling a severe Covid-19 infection earlier this year.
He said Sydney’s ongoing three-and-a-half month lockdown was a nightmare for his fighting preparation and was starting to cause serious problems at home.
The father-of-two has had to have extended periods away from his daughters who are both younger than five – while juggling Covid procedures from the NSW government.
‘There’s a lot that needs to go into it. Right now my daughters are getting home schooled, but with these quarantines, there’s a lot happening,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Three months in lockdown or more, things like that. We’re in our peak, we haven’t made any decisions yet but if we have do it we’re gonna do it.’
Volkanovski defeated Ortega on points after five rounds from the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas on Sunday afternoon after twice escaping deadly submission attempts from the jiu jitsu master
The father-of-two has had to have extended periods away from his daughters who are both younger than five – while juggling Covid procedures from the NSW government
Volkanovski says he has a newfound respect for Ortega, who described the Australian as a ‘tough little barstard’ after their fight Sunday
‘At home I’m just daddy getting bossed around by my two little girls, you know, they don’t care about a golden belt,’ Volkanovski told Daily Mail Australia last year
The man who is among Australia’s greatest current athletes lives and trains in the sleepy town of Windang, home to roughly 3,000 people on the New South Wales south coast
Fellow UFC stars and sparring partners Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker have already announced they will be moving their famous Auckland-based City Kickboxing to the USA, slamming the country’s closed borders.
‘You will never see me fight in New Zealand ever again,’ Adesanya said on his YouTube account.
‘All that money, they can get it from somewhere else. Their rugby, cricket and all the others they’re giving exemptions to. But you will never ever see me fight on these shores.’
Adesanya told Daily Mail Australia earlier this year his dream was to sell-out Eden Park in Auckland for a title fight in the future, but the Nigeria-born fighter said that is now dead.
‘That was one of my dreams, to headline a stadium in my backyard. That dream’s dead in the water. That’s just the way I feel right now,’ he said.
Volkanovski, who is close friends and trains with both Adesanya and Hooker, echoed their sentiments at a press conference saying his hand was also being forced by the government.
‘I have to ride out this f***ing lockdown thing. That’s why I said this fight was for everyone back home, they’re going through tough times,’ he said in his post-fight press conference.
The former rugby league prop won all five rounds, but was nearly submitted twice in the third round after being put in a guillotine and triangle choke within seconds of each other
UFC Featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski (left) has taken and beaten on some of the greatest fighters in the world, but his wife Emma (right) says his two little girls Ariana (left), four, and Ariel (right), two, are his kryptonite
‘We can’t wait to get back to Australia and celebrate… if they’ll let us,’ the Featherweight champion said
Emma said that with the COVID-19 restrictions meaning her husband’s current training camp is taking place at home, she has regularly tried to give him some alone time away from his two little girls: ‘But he insists he doesn’t want that,’ she says
Alex Volkanovski has won 20-consecutive fights in the UFC and is the undisputed UFC Featherweight Champion
Volkanovski, who ended the press conference doing a shoey (drinking beer from a shoe) after doing a thongy (drinking beer off a thong or flip-flop) on his way out of the ring, admitted he got in trouble for swearing too much during his post-match interviews.
‘The wife got into me, she said the kids were around, told me to pull my head in,’ he said.
The former rugby league prop won all five rounds of the fight, but was nearly submitted twice in the third round after being put in a guillotine and triangle choke within seconds of each other.
Even the UFC’s commentators were calling for Volkanovski to tap out as Ortega locked his head into the guillotine, but to the shock of the American and the crowd the fierce Aussie somehow broke loose.
‘It was tight, I was thinking ”this ain’t good”. I was making some weird noises,’ he said.
‘I just made that little bit of space, that little bit of movement and little adjustments to get that space to get the blood and oxygen.
‘But that was deep. Maybe the bald head helped me.’
Volkanovski is now poised to spend two weeks quarantining alone in a Sydney hotel room – when he should be celebrating with family and friends.
He flies out of Vegas in the coming days. ‘We can’t wait to get back to Australia and celebrate… if they’ll let us,’ the Featherweight Champion said.
