“There’s a lot of history there,” Alexander Volkanovski makes case for a grappling rematch with former opponent Brian Ortega

Alexander Volkanovki is now on a losing streak but was once the pound-for-pound king in the UFC. Before his loss against Ilia Topuria at UFC 299, Volkanovski had a thirteen-fight winning streak at featherweight. One of the best fights Volkanovski had was with two-time title challenger Brian Ortega.

Volkanovski has won two ESPN’s fight of the Year Awards – one with Islam Makhachev and the other with Ortega. Against a submission specialist like Ortega, Volkanovski successfully defended multiple chokes and eventually battered Ortega en route to a unanimous decision victory. Now Volk has made a case for a rematch with Ortega.

I’ve actually, yeah, I’ve actually wanted to do that [grapple with Brian Ortega]. When I’m waiting for fights, again, while I was active, I was like, ‘I can’t fight for a while.’ I was like, ‘Well, let’s do something like this,’ because I think that would be a great thing. You know, Brian Ortega, jiu-jitsu specialist, that fight we had, those submissions that were—you know what I mean? Like, there’s a lot of history there for that grappling match.
Alexander Volkanovski via The AllStar

Craig Jones, Volkanovski’s BJJ coach, had already revealed about it on the recent Joe Rogan Experience episode. Volk is up for the contest, hoping for a top BJJ promotion to make it happen. Jones has started his journey as a BJJ promoter, and Volk hopes his coach can also make the grappling contest happen.

Ilia Topuria recently stated Max Holloway is next for him, which meant that Volkanovski is taking time off after the brutal knockout loss. Volkanovski is now in Thailand on a holiday. When he returns to compete in MMA, it’s very likely for a title. For the time being, a grappling match with Ortega could work.

Alexander Volkanovski showed impressive BJJ defense against Brian Ortega

Brian Ortega is one of the best submission specialists in the UFC. T-City, his nickname, is a testament to his grappling prowess. In MMA, he has several victories via submission, mainly through guillotine and triangle chokes. In his latest fight, he submitted Yair Rodriguez with an arm-triangle choke.

Alexander Volkanovski defeated Brian Ortega at UFC 266 (Image via: X)

Nonetheless, one fighter escaped Ortega’s submission attempts – Alexander Volkanovski. In the main event of UFC 266, Ortega caught Vokanovski in a mounted guillotine in round three. Everybody thought Volk would go to sleep. However, he somehow escaped. Ortega then caught Volk in a triangle choke, and the Australian escaped again.