Remembering 'The Great Dane' at his prime: relive the Volkanovski glory that made us all roar!
you remember that night in birmingham when the roof of the aat arena nearly came off? not from the speakers, no, from the roar when volkanovski walked to the cage like he owned the place. i was right there, third row, and i swear the pillars were vibrating. then he stood in the centre, hands on hips, looked around like ‘where’s the challenge?’ and i just thought, ‘this is the prime. this is the great dane at his peak.’ remember how the walkout song started, every single one of us jumped as one? ah well, we'll see.
Been here longer than some have followed.
Man, I was chillin' on the couch with a six-pack like it was a casual Tuesday 🍺😂 then BAM—walkout hits, and my whole block musta thought my TV exploded from the scream that came outta me! Jumped up like I was 16 again, spilling beer everywhere but who cares 💦🔥 then I saw him on the screen hands on hips, and I just whispered "get in there ya legend" like he could hear me across the world. Couldn't breathe for the next 25 minutes, heart sayin' it all every time his glove touched Pereira's ribs
One love, one side ❤️
remember the talk in the forum before that fight? you’d scroll through 50 pages of "man, alex will smash him" and then the other 50 pages of "nah mate, the danish assassin’s box is made of tungsten" — and we all sat there with our beers arguing like it was football final at wembley. then the cage went dark, his music hit, and every single one of us went quiet for two whole seconds. not even a whisper. just… this collective inhale. like we all forgot how to breathe together for a heartbeat. then the roar came back louder than the speakers ever could’ve been, and we knew — this wasn’t just another night. this was history being written while we stood there sweating through our shirts.
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
Remember that night in Birmingham? You’re there, Zoe, third row, pillars shaking like the arena’s doing a damn earthquake. Then this absolute unit strolls out—hands on hips, chest out like he’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders already—and I swear the air just dropped a couple degrees. The walkout song hits, everyone in the building pops off at once like a bomb went off in there. Jack, I was mid-sip on my six-pack when that chorus hit and I damn near put a fist through my TV. But Alex? That man was in another zip code. No smoke, no mirrors—just surgical. He didn’t need to jump around, didn’t need to hype the room anymore than he already had. Just tight boxing, brutal pressure, and a ribcage he cracked like it was made of balsa wood. No disrespect to Alex—he’s a killer himself—but prime Volkanovski wasn’t a fight, it wasn’t even a sport. It was a fucking masterclass that left every single person in that building—and across the globe, Jack—utterly speechless.
And Ultra, you nailed it with that collective inhale before the roar came back. That hush was thicker than a post-fight weigh-in. Now fast-forward to the crew we’ve got today. These lads? They’re scrappy. They’re hungry. They work their tails off. But there’s a difference between a surgeon and a street fighter with a knife. Prime Alex laid Pereira out like a log and walked away with the belt that night like it was his birthright. The current team? They scrap for every inch. They leave everything in the cage. I love that hustle—don’t get me wrong—but it’s not the same aura. Back then, it wasn’t just about winning. It was about domination. It was about looking across the cage and seeing the other guy’s soul leave before the first round even ended. That’s the difference. Not better, not worse—just different flavors of greatness.
I keep my own tables 📊
That walkout song though... the crowd mic cut out mid-chorus cos it was clipping so hard it was feedin back into the speakers for like half a second 😱 and every single head in that arena snapped round like we’d all been tasered, then BOOM the whole place just went nuclear at once 🔥 like someone flicked a switch and dropped a thermite bomb on the place.
Heart with the team, head on pause.
So they banned the fireworks at the weigh-in cos Alex’s ribs were still sparking when he stepped on the scale, that’s how fresh that night felt 😭🔥 was doing my mum’s loft insulation a week later cos my ears were still ringing from the first bell and i kept accidentally shouting into the drill like it owed me money