UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski has fashioned himself into something of an MMA Swiss army knife of late. There was a time, however, when Volkanovski was best known for his elite striking, which has seen him outmatch such stand-up luminaries as Max Holloway and Yair Rodriguez.
It’s safe to say that Alexander “The Great” knows a thing or two about striking, and he recently took to his YouTube channel to declare UFC bantamweight contender Sean O’Malley one of the best in the game.
Alexander Volkanovski Declares Sean O’Malley “one of the best strikers in the UFC”
“Sean O’Malley, I think he’s up there as one of the best strikers in the UFC, he’s right up there. Especially in that division. There’s so many — that’s a stacked division. You’ve got your [Cory] Sandhagens, obviously, Petr Yans, Aljamains, there’s so much talent.
Man, it is a stacked division and I think he’s one of the best when it comes to striking. So that’s saying something. He’s very creative, doesn’t just throw flash stuff. It’s calculated.
He’s got really good distance management, he’s really good at drawing strikes out of people and countering. He’s really good on the offense, coming forward.
He’s good even on the back foot. He’s good on his angles. Very, very high-level stuff and he can be very creative while he does that.”
Despite this, Volkanovski expects to see defending champion Aljamain Sterling earn the W, but warned that O’Malley has the tools to get the job done if Sterling isn’t careful.
“I’m leaning towards Aljamain because I just think that wrestling and that control is gonna eventually get there. You know how sometimes you just watch someone’s story and it’s just like something is meant to be?
Then you have Aljamain talking about definitely moving up [in weight] after this. A part of the story is does he lose and he was moving up anyway and Sean O’Malley, this whole rise that he’s done, becoming champion, massive superstar for the UFC.
It could be. It feels likes sort of something that could happen. Beating Petr Yan? You know when someone just has that momentum and it’s just meant to be and it happens? I’m a believer in that sometimes, man, I really am.
I feel like it could definitely be a TKO for Sean O’Malley because his striking is that good, but I will lean towards Aljamain, I think he has got a more safer way to victory. More percentage-wise, I’m always gonna go there, but it could definitely happen for Sean O’Malley.
We know he’s gonna turn up. This is a massive fight for him. We know he wants to get paid and he knows what winning’s gonna do for his paycheck.
Being the champ, the money is good, we ain’t gonna lie about that.”
