Alexander Volkanovski reflects on deep Brian Ortega guillotine choke: “His arms will gas out or I die”

UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski’s mindset was otherworldly against Brian Ortega.

‘The Great’ is currently slated to return next month at UFC 290 against Yair Rodriguez. The bout will be the featherweight champion’s first since February. That month at UFC 284, Alexander Volkanovski came up short against Islam Makhachev in a bid for lightweight gold.

Leading into his return, the featherweight champion has admitted that ‘El Pantera’ might be the biggest challenge of his career. That’s saying a lot considering the fight that Brian Ortega gave him at UFC 266. In that clash in September 2021, Alexander Volkanovski retained his title by unanimous decision.

However, it didn’t come easily, as Alexander Volkanovski stated on the Impaulsive podcast. There, he reflected on the fight with Brian Ortega, and more specifically, the third round. In that frame, the challenger locked up a deep guillotine choke, but the champion refused to tap.

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“Well, tapping was never an option, yeah tapping was never an option,” Alexander Volkanovski stated regarding his UFC 266 fight with Brian Ortega. “There’s layers to it, so let’s get into it… So I put myself in these positions a lot, and nobody got me as f*cking tired as Brian did. Not even when I would let them, that’s how deep he got it. So credit to him, I was like ‘How the f*ck did you do that that quickly?’, I couldn’t believe how quickly he did it.”

He continued, “We get there and I’m like ‘Oh f*ck, I’m in the choke’ and I’m doing what I needed to do. Pushing on the hips, he’s done things beautifully, so I was trying to change the mechanics of it to give myself oxygen. It wasn’t working… It wasn’t f*cking working, and I’m like well, I’m going to keep f*cking trying! The lights started dimming, and it was like a movie honestly.”

“At one stage I was like ‘There’s no f*cking way he’s taking this belt away from my family’, it was that type of moment. I’m like ‘f*ck that’, it was never an option. It was either, his arms were going to gas out, or I die.”

What do you make of these comments from Alexander Volkanovski? Are you excited for his return at UFC 290?