Alexander Volkanovski
Alexander Volkanovski, the Windang rugby league forward who became UFC featherweight champion, lost the belt to Ilia Topuria and won it back at 36.
Photo: NAPARAZZI, CC-BY-SA-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized and converted to WebP.
Warilla Gorillas, 2011
Before he was a fighter, Alexander Volkanovski was a rugby league player on the New South Wales South Coast. In March 2012 the Illawarra Mercury described him as a first-grader for the Warilla Gorillas who had been named man of the match in the 2011 Group Seven grand final, when Warilla beat Gerringong. ABC News describes him as "from Windang on the NSW South Coast."
Bloody Elbow traces his family to two sides of the Balkans: his father, Tony, is of Macedonian descent and was born in Yugoslavia, and his mother, Mary, is of Greek origin. The nickname "The Great" comes from Alexander the Great.
Mixed martial arts started as a side project. "I started training in 2011 to keep fit, as I was a professional rugby league player at the time," he says on his UFC athlete page. Bloody Elbow puts his age at the time at 22 and says he took up Greco-Roman wrestling alongside it.
Freestyle Fighting Gym and Joe Lopez
He trained at Freestyle Fighting Gym under Joe Lopez, and the UFC still lists Freestyle as his gym. By the time the Mercury profiled him in 2012, he had three caged MMA fights and had won all of them by first-round knockout, while still playing first-grade football. "Alex has huge potential in MMA and his dedication to training will ensure he continues to grow in the sport," Lopez told the paper. Volkanovski said then that he had started MMA to keep fit for rugby league, found he had a passion for it, and wanted to go as far as he could.
UFC 245 and Max Holloway
Volkanovski won the UFC featherweight title on December 14, 2019, at UFC 245, beating Max Holloway by unanimous decision. The UFC's record and ABC News both cover the fight. He then defended the belt five times: twice more against Holloway, at UFC 251 and UFC 276, and against Brian Ortega at UFC 266, Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273 and Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290, according to his UFC record.
In 2023 he moved up twice to fight Islam Makhachev for the UFC lightweight title. He lost the first fight, at UFC 284 in February, by unanimous decision. Makhachev knocked him out at 3:06 of the first round in the rematch at UFC 294 in October.
Ilia Topuria at UFC 298
He lost the featherweight title on February 17, 2024, at UFC 298, when Ilia Topuria knocked him out at 3:32 of the second round. The California State Athletic Commission filing for that card, reported by Low Kick MMA and Sportskeeda, lists Volkanovski's guaranteed purse at 750,000 dollars as the defending champion, against 350,000 dollars for Topuria. Those figures exclude bonuses, sponsorship and any share of pay-per-view revenue.
That is the most recent official pay figure found for him; no commission filing for his later fights was found. No credible outlet has published a dated estimate of his net worth, so this article gives none.
Diego Lopes and the Vacant Title in Miami
Topuria moved up a division and left the featherweight belt vacant. On April 12, 2025, at UFC 314 in Miami, Volkanovski beat Diego Lopes by unanimous decision to win it back at 36. ABC News reported that he became the first fighter over 35 to win a UFC title fight at 155 pounds or lighter.
He kept it in 2026. He beat Lopes again at UFC 325 in January, according to his UFC record, and then fought the unbeaten Movsar Evloev at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi on October 24.
UFC 333 Against Movsar Evloev
The referee stopped the Evloev fight in the second round with six seconds left, a TKO win that ABC News counted as a record ninth win in a UFC featherweight title fight. His record moved to 29-4. Asked about retirement afterward, he said, "maybe we keep going."
The fight fell three days after his wedding anniversary. "I actually promised the missus, it was our wedding anniversary on Wednesday, I promised her a quick one so she wasn't stressing on the sidelines," he told reporters.
Emma and the Family in Windang
Volkanovski is married to Emma. Bloody Elbow and Sportskeeda give the wedding date as October 12, 2012; his own remark after UFC 333 puts the anniversary on a Wednesday that fell on October 21, so the exact day is unsettled. As of April 2025 the couple had three daughters, with a fourth on the way during his UFC 314 camp, both outlets report.
He still lives on the South Coast, where his rugby league career began. At 38, according to the UFC, he holds the featherweight title for a second time.
Sources
- Alexander Volkanovski | UFC
- Australia's Alexander Volkanovski earns record ninth UFC featherweight title win against Movsar Evloev - ABC News
- Alexander Volkanovski reclaims UFC world featherweight title with victory over Brazil's Diego Lopes - ABC News
- Alex Volkanovski yet to lose a cage bout | Illawarra Mercury | Wollongong, NSW
- Who is Alexander Volkanovski? From rugby league bruiser to UFC's iron-willed featherweight
- How many kids does Alexander Volkanovski have? Everything we know about the former UFC champion's daughters
- UFC 298 Fight Purses Revealed: Ex-Champion Henry Cejudo Set To Receive Just $150,000 For Return
- Alexander Volkanovski: UFC 298 payouts revealed: CSAC releases fight purse numbers for Alexander Volkanovski, Henry Cejudo, Paulo Costa and more
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