EXCLUSIVE | Alexander Volkanovski explains why he wants to take Chad Mendes’ head off

Last weekend, on the undercard of UFC Boise, Australian featherweight contender Alexander Volkanovski picked up the biggest win of his career thus far, dominating the durable Darren Elkins to a lopsided unanimous decision win.

In the moments after this win, Volkanovski said that he’d like to fight Chad Mendes next, so long as Mendes defeated Myles Jury on the UFC Boise main card.

In the end, Mendes did defeat Jury, and emphatically so, putting his foe down with a first-round punch.

Volkanovski watched this fight, and while he was fairly impressed by Mendes’ win, he wasn’t completely blown away either.

Volkanovski broke down Mendes’ win on the latest episode of BJPENN.COM Radio.

“He looked good,” Alexander Volkanovski said of Mendes, who was returning from a lengthy suspension after he tested positive for GHRP-6, a growth hormone release stimulator. “Jury was looking good earlier as well. Jury was doing well at keeping him at bay, making Chad really pick and choose when he was gonna come in. [Chad] just timed that shot right. He came in, bridged the gap with that hook, and dropped him. I was surprised. I didn’t think that Jury was that hurt, but he didn’t want to protect himself properly, and the ref had to go in and stop it.”

For Volkanovski, Mendes is an appealing fight for a number of reasons. First and foremost, because the American is a big name in the UFC featherweight division, having fought Jose Aldo twice for the undisputed title, and Conor McGregor for the interim title.

“That’s a great fight for me,” Volkanovski said. “Obviously, he’s a good fighter, and it’s gonna be a great fight. A lot of eyes are on Chad Mendes, everyone knows who he is. We both fought on the same night, and I just saw it was a clever thing for me to do, to call him out.”

That said, Volkanovski is also keen to punish Mendes for his failed drug test.

“I mean no disrespect, but, you got caught doing something, and that shit pisses me off, so yeah, I wanna take his head off,” Volkanovski said.

“He looks like a pretty nice dude, to be honest with you, pretty chilled out guy,” Volkanovski said. “But that stuff, again, that stuff pisses me off. I don’t know the full story. I’m sure people are gonna make excuses for him like they do with everyone else, but at the end of the day, he probably always was using. Again, that pisses me off. I wanna take him out.”

At present Volkanovski says there hasn’t been any movement on a potential fight with Mendes. That said, he and his team plan to pursue the matchup, and if it comes to fruition, he believes a victory will probably catapult him right into title contention.

“You take [Mendes] out, you’re right up there,” he said. “Then people are talking about the title contention.”

Do you want to see a fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Chad Mendes?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/19/2018.