The dominant showing UFC featherweight champ Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski put on in his last title defense at UFC 273 has put the MMA world on notice. Perhaps loudest among those calling for a shot at the champ is former two-division champion Henry Cejudo, who recently announced his return to the USADA testing pool, effectively ending Cejudo’s retirement.
Although Cejudo keeps needling Volkanovksi via social media, Volkanovski told The MMA Hour that he won’t be wasting any time worrying about “Triple C” until the former flyweight and bantamweight champ has proven himself at featherweight.
Volkanovski Refuses to “Waste Energy” on Henry Cejudo
““I’ll take him serious — once he’s in the pool. You obviously can take him serious [then], but he still needs to prove himself in our division.
I respect the guy. Obviously he does his thing and all that. I don’t hate the guy. He’s got a lot of great accomplishments and I respect him as a fighter and as an athlete, but at the same time, how long has he been calling me out?
He was giving Zombie s*** about getting the fight, and then all of a sudden he’s in his corner. I was like, mate, Zombie, he was pretty much bagging you, but now he’s jumping on the bandwagon to get a bit of attention.
And he wasn’t even in the testing pool but he was sitting there and couldn’t believe I didn’t choose him. Mate, you know you can’t even fight, why are you wasting your breath, and why should I waste my breath on it? So that’s why I don’t take it too serious.”
Cejudo seems serious about ending his retirement, but he’s also intent on an immediate title shot. It’s rare for any fighter returning from a lengthy layoff, even a former champion, to return straight to a title fight, which is exactly why Volkanovski isn’t worried about him.
“That’s what I mean. Why am I gonna waste energy? I probably can right now because we don’t have a clear guy that it’s gonna be, so maybe that’s why you’re asking and I’m even talking about it, I guess. But again, I’m not gonna take it too serious.”
More pressing, as far as Alexander Volkanovski is concerned, is the chance to defend his featherweight title on home soil. Alexander “The Great” wants to bring the UFC back to Australia.
“I’m comfortable and confident enough to at least have that conversation with him, where before I wouldn’t be. I’d just stay right out of it. But I’m gonna at least talk to him.
Let’s try and figure this out because they love bringing the UFC to Australia, we sell out arenas every single time. It’s massive over there, and you’ve got a champion that hasn’t defended his belt in his own country yet.
Just let me defend my belt in Australia. It’s that simple. That’s all that really matters.” Do you agree with the champ? Let us know in the comments.
