“They’re really surprised”- Eugene Bareman reveals how Alexander Volkanovski shocks light heavyweights with his strength
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Alexander Volkanowski (left) and CKB Head Coach Eugene Bareman (right)
Alexander Volkanovski is a special kind of fighter. The current featherweight champion gained that title by beating Max Holloway, someone many considered to be the greatest Featherweight in MMA due to his legendary title-run. However, Volkanovski made it look easy being one of the few fighters that were able to go toe to toe against Max Holloway and not come out with a battered face.
Volkanovski now has 3 title defenses under his name, with only the first against Max Holloway being considered a somewhat controversial win. The latter 2 against Brian Ortega and TKZ, made it seem as though the UFC Featherweight division’s top contenders were nothing but warm-up fights for the Australian, looking untouchable while busting up his opponents.
Considering he didn’t have a traditional route to MMA i.e. where most athletes train their whole lives in a single form of combat sports and ultimately branch out to MMA while polishing the rest of their skill set, what Volk is been able to achieve is nothing short of a miracle. While he did have a Greco-roman wrestling background, he quit training at the young age of 14 to focus completely on his rugby aspirations.
Alexander Volkanovski handles Lightweights with ease according to coach Eugene Bareman
As Joe Rogan loves to point out, during his rugby days, the current featherweight weighed around 97 kilos or upwards of 200 pounds. The process of him finally settling in the 145 Pound division involved a whole lot of amateur fights at middleweight, slowly moving down consecutive weight classes all the way to featherweight. However, it might be his rugby days that have gifted the Champion with a terrifying amount of strength for his size.
City Kickboxing’s head coach Eugene Bareman elaborated on this during his appearance for Submission Radio. Bareman described the shock of being grabbed by Volk saying, “It doesn’t matter who you are, what experience you have, he grabs you and you feel something different” claiming many professionals find it shocking to experience the amount of strength from a man like Alex who stands at 5’6 ft or 168 cms.
He continued, “Look I got middleweights and light heavyweights that feel it. They’re like ‘fuken hell’. They’re really surprised when Alex grabs them” claiming the featherweight is able to give a tough fight to professionals who are almost two divisions heavier than him.
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)