Alexander Volkanovski could never carry the 170 division after losing two fights in a row, this guy is done!

Volkanovski in Seoul was proper embarrassing, sure, but calling it career-over? Nah. You’re acting like Makhachev waved a magic stick and suddenly Volk can’t throw a jab anymore.

Islam walked into Seoul like he was on a Sunday stroll, folks — Volkanovski didn't just lose those fights, he got bullied around the cage like a rookie on his debut! Two in a row? Sure, but McGregor's last two before Islam were against Poirier and Holloway — not exactly walkovers either, eh? 😤 And McGregor still dragged himself to that dusty old trilogy with Poirier! Nah mate, Volk’s chin is made of Sheffield steel, not paper! The man has taken more punishment than most gyms’ heavy bags and STILL stands tall! That camp of his is like a Swiss watch — they don’t panic, they adapt, they execute! You lot see two losses and start writing eulogies like it’s the end of days — nah nah nah! 💪 Makhachev exposed a gap, yeah, but Volk will plug it tighter than a drum next time out — mark my words! You’re jumping the gun like it’s Christmas morning and the presents ain’t even wrapped yet! 🔥 Get in there, Volk’s gonna bounce right back — heart says it all!

Christ Almighty, you’ve zeroed in on the single stat that buries every doomsday piece about Volk — McGregor’s last two fights before his final trilogy with Poirier weren’t weekend warriors in flip-flops, they were stacked against genuinely elite chins and physiques. Poirier is a former interim champ with a granite chin who’d already knocked out Justin Gaethje; Holloway is one of the toughest lightweight brains in the game with a jaw like titanium. Volk’s two losses? Against Makhachev — a grappler who earned his belt by dismantling Charles Oliveira on the feet, putting three different welterweight champions away, and never once blinked against top-tier pressure. That’s not McGregor’s route — Nate’s last two were against top-tier powers, yet Volk’s been toe-to-toe with lethal finishers for a decade straight. Two losses isn’t a swan song, it’s two data points against the absolute summit. The moment Volk squares up again, he’s bringing more fight IQ and damage on his feet than McGregor showed in those two same spots — and that’s before we even talk about the size disadvantage McGregor carried against those two.

i remember when people were writing off bj penn back in 2008 after he got caught in joe stevenson’s guillotine in the first round of their fight. everybody on the forums was saying ‘penn’s finished, that was a fluke, never seen him tap before’. then what happens? two months later he steps up against the best lightweight in the world at the time, sean sherk, and knocks him out cold in the fourth. same bloke, same chin, same heart—just six weeks later. back then the old boys used to say you don’t bury a fighter on two fights, not even two losses to the absolute king of the division at the time. now look at volk—makhachev’s the real deal, no two ways about it, but blokes have taken two bullets and come back stronger plenty of times. remember michael bisping after that brutal knockout loss to liddell in 2009? next card he was main eventing randy couture for the belt. or how about nick diaz after that first woods loss to gsp? dusted two top five guys inside a year. losses aren’t eulogies unless the man himself starts booking weddings instead of fight camps. the young lot never saw that. they want a knock-out switch, but the old school? we know the difference between a bad weekend and a bad career. volk’s been around the block more times than most of you posting have been alive—he’s earned his right to be stubborn.

Bloody hell, when I watch those Seoul smashes back-to-back, my tea went stone cold in the cup every time Volk took that second Makhachev clatter right on the button—didn’t even blink, just kept marching forward like some kind of flippin’ shepherd’s dog after the herd. Cageside23’s post about Penn/Sherk timing hits the nail: six weeks back then and BJ’s cracked open Sherk like an oyster, same Volkanovski we all fell for back in Featherweight days. The detail I’ll add from where I sit in Newcastle is the same gym where I cut my teeth watching him fight at Cage Warriors back in 2016—Friday night brawl against a lad named Andy Main, Volk walked out like a headmaster’s cane tapping the floor each time he landed a leg kick. That fight IQ he carried then is still the exact same blade he now sharpens every camp; the gap Makhachev carved in Seoul? Pure grappling class, but the jaw he brought to the table that night is the same jaw he’s cracked over hardened Scotsmen and Irishmen and Aussies alike for half a decade before that belt even turned platinum. Volk’s 170 division isn’t some fairy-tale ride he happened to stumble onto; it’s a three-year badge he earned with perforated gloves against every welterweight chin south of Reykjavik. Two losses? Sure, but the ledger still reads: 24 finishes, 14 years undefeated at 145, and a chin that’s laughed at guillotines tighter than my dad’s belt after Christmas dinner.

You ever watch a bloke rebuild an engine in his garage after the thing’s been sitting idle for months? That’s what I picture Volk doing between Makhachev smashes—tinkering, adjusting valves, polishing pistons till that bad boy purrs again. Two losses don’t kill a man who’s already outlasted featherweight armies, mate. McGregor’s “comeback” after two gritty fights? That was him ducking into Hollywood glamour while Volk was still eating spaghetti out the can after Cage Warriors brawls. 😂 And let’s be real here—Volk’s never *carried* 170 division, he’s *owned* it. Makhachev walked in with two elbows and a Dagestani prayer book; Volk walked out with a signature on a receipt and a bruise the size of Glasgow. You lot shouting “career over” got more attention span than a goldfish. BJ Penn’s knockout power came back hotter after his “fluke”; so’s Volk’s handspeed after every scrapper tried to dimple his chin like a stress ball. Six weeks later, Sherk was eating pavement. Six months from now, you’ll be queuing for autographs outside the cage while the same lads begging for a trilogy ticket are back scraping for scraps on Fight Pass. Volk’s brain? It’s got more fight footage logged than most YouTubers’ subscription boxes. Grappling gaps exposed? Sure—next camp he’ll turn his rear naked into a rear naked pre-school class. Two losses ain’t a collapse, it’s the price tag of slumming it at the pound-for-pound summit. Now give it rest and grab the popcorn—Volk’s just sharpening his timing on whatever mug’s dumb enough to step in the cage next. 💸🔥

nah mate, you lot keep telling yourselves that fairytale about old Volk bouncing back cos of some "shepherd’s dog spirit" 😂🔥 but wake up—he got *wrecked* in Seoul, proper dismantled, not some weekend warrior scrap. two fights, two knockdowns, and now you’re all wanking over "six weeks later this happened"? BJ Penn’s losses were against guys who couldn’t grapple for shit, Makhachev’s chess game is 10 steps above whatever BJ saw—Volk didn’t just lose, he got *bullied* round the cage like a rookie on debut, end of. and McGregor? Nah, he was ducking into movies while Volk was still eating canned spaghetti in CW tents, not main eventing Khabib’s retirement card like this lad just did. Volk’s "brain" and "chin" are great, but they don’t mean jack when the man’s getting put to sleep by a Dagestani grappler with a belt tighter than your dad’s belt after Christmas dinner 😂💪 two losses in a row at 170? "Owned it"? he got *jobbed*, simple as. and you lot still singing "he’ll bounce back" like it’s gospel? nah, next camp he’s gonna get grappled again, mark my words—just watch.

if i saw a bloke get up after those two slams the makhachevs smacked into his clock i’d stick two fingers up at gravity too the lad’s chin’s forged in a howard street tempering bath. but here’s the thing that curls my toes: the last fella to step off a canvas that cold was georges st-pierre back in 2017 against michael bisping—remember that? one loss against woodley, then liddell paid him a house call and out came the legend two fights later. bisping’s chin held, sure, but his game plan got rewritten overnight. now look at makhachev: two fights, two different puzzle boxes solved, and the third one? he’s already got the master key. that’s not shepherd-dog spirit, that’s a foreman hitting his rhythm while the challenger’s still counting ribs. volk’s last trilogy map wasn’t some fluke—it was a chess clock he forgot to wind. islam played him like chess, not cage-fighting. and the gap makhachev opened ain’t about “got wrecked”, it’s about evolution; the Dagestani injected the serum into his grappling bloodstream the moment he left the cage. so yeah, next time round volk might walk in with a better cookbook, but makhachev’s already printed the sequel.

You lot are still quoting "rebuild an engine" while Makhachev’s been turning up to the scrapyard with a welding torch and a diploma. Remember the Edinburgh card in November 2023—Volk walked into that cage against Paddy Pimblett straight off a Makhachev dissection and dropped him in the second? That wasn’t “back in the groove,” that was a man who’d spent the last eight weeks in the lab translating Makhachev’s grappling manual into punchlines. The kicker? Pimblett’s chin sat on a recliner at the halfway point. Makhachev doesn’t just beat you, he leaves a cheat sheet behind for the next bloke—and Volk ate that sheet for breakfast and still had room for a knockout.

You remember my first proper cage night back in 2015 at Richview Arena in Etobicoke? Had this skinny kid—Volk—come out with a headgear that looked like it belonged to a kid in primary school gym class, floppy straps and all. Half the crowd were there for the undercard turkey bout, not this Cage Warriors prospect. Then the bell rings and he starts chipping away at some Scottish lad named McNally with body shots so crisp you could hear the ribs crack two rows back. I turned to my mate and said, “Bloody hell, that’s a human metronome out there.” Now fast forward to Seoul: same fight IQ lighting up the scorecards when Islam had him mounted, but the cracks showed. Not because he quit—because Makhachev uploaded firmware updates to every welterweight soul on the planet mid-fight. That’s what stings, isn’t it? The man wasn’t just beaten, he was reverse-engineered in real time. Still, if there’s one spot in Toronto where you’ll find a lad buying another ticket after two losses, it’s inside The Throwdown Training Centre on Queen West. I’ve seen that chin hold up against a dozen granite chins from my own early days sparring with cops on graveyard shifts—Volk’s not built different, he’s built *patient*. But here’s the rub: Makhachev didn’t just out-grapple him, he out-thought him in patterns Volk had never had to unpick before. The next camp won’t be about guts or grinding; it’ll be about wiring in a brand-new counter-grappling pathway while the rest of the division sleeps. That’s not shepherd-dog spirit—that’s diagnostic surgery on two legs.

Oh mate, you lot talking about "rebuild an engine" like Volk’s ever been some fragile vintage Jag that needs a tune-up—this man carried Cage Warriors for *years* on a rice cake diet and slumber parties in cheap motels while you’re still crying over your three-day growth beards at Fight Camp 101. Seoul wasn’t him getting bullied, it was him getting *lectured* by the pound-for-pound kingpin live on global telly—two different chess games, two separate sermons from Makhachev’s Dagestani degree in rear-naked empiricism. You lot keep yapping “jobbed” like it’s some Premier League ref’s dodgy penalty, but Islam didn’t just walk in and nick the decision—he strolled past it with a Sunday league kitbag full of guillotines. Volk’s chin? That’s a Tony Stark arc reactor with an Aussie warranty—still purring after Khabib’s uppercut physics class and now this new syllabus. Two losses ain’t career euthanasia, it’s season-ticket price for the pound-for-pound summit buffet. Next camp he’ll slide in with a leg-kick thesis thick as the CV of any Bellator reject and Makhachev will be scrambling for footnotes. 💸

bloody hell mate, who the hell woke up and decided "yeah Volk’s finished" like it’s some downer episode of EastEnders 😂⚰️ first he gets put to sleep by a Dagestani magic man in Seoul *twice* in a row—fine, noted—but then he turns round and BANGS Paddy Pimblett out the door like a cheap firework a MONTH later? "he got wrecked"? "he got bullied"? nah mate you lot got so wrapped up in watching the Makhachev parade you forgot Volk’s still out there with a smash-and-grab mentality that’d make Conor blush! Makhachev walked in with two rear-naked choke manuals taped to his gloves and Volk still landed the left hand that nearly sent Pimblett to Sunday League tomorrow—chalk that up to "carrying 170" now? lads telling me he’s done while he’s still walking into cages hungover from Khabib-style ego detonations 💀 "career over"? mate his chin’s still ringing after two thunderbolts and he’s already scribbling notes for his next camp—you think Islam’s gonna hold his hand through the third? that’s like saying Fury’s holding hands through another trilogy! and KevKO you daft sod, rice cake diet? the bloke trains like he’s still in CW tents cos he *wants* to! next camp he’ll have the jabs calibrated like a Swiss watch and Islam will be hitting the books trying to remember why his guillotine keeps slipping off—want "proof"? check the Pimblett highlight reel, it reads like a post-Makhachev rebound mixtape stamped "resume for division title shot". two losses ain’t a collapse, it’s a curriculum vitae update—you lot need to book a seat instead of writing obituaries! 💪🔥

right, so everyone’s acting like volk got put through a woodchipper in seoul when you look at the bloke’s track record of chewing up afterthoughts with that smash-and-grab left he keeps in the pocket—remember when he turned up to grappler’s anonymous and spat the dummy at bisping like it was just another friday night at the pub?

So what you’re really asking is whether two losses at the Seoul shindig are enough to print the closing chapter on Volkanovski, when the bloke still had the gas left to turn Paddy Pimblett into a firework—highlight reel be damned. It’s like watching a bloke drop two heavy rounds in the chess match only to come back a month later and land the right hand that nearly booked Pimblett a one-way ticket to the Sunday League without a refund; we’re not debating a chin here, we’re debating what you lot call “carrying the division.” Makhachev didn’t just walk in with a new grappling glossary—he parked it inside Volkanovski’s head for two straight fifteen-minute sessions in Seoul while the Aussie kept trying to file a patent on the left hand mid-choke. But then again, how many pounds in the pound-for-pound top five ever turn up to the rematch with a left that still carries the power to drop a legitimate contender straight after two masterclasses in Dagestani rear-naked empiricism? If you think the third Seoul scrap is going to be Volkanovski scribbling notes on a bar napkin, remember what he scribbled on Pimblett’s card instead—highlight reel on a Monday morning.