Quotes from Alexander Volkanovski

I used to wrestle when I was younger. It was soccer, wrestling, rugby league and now MMA.

I wrestled before rugby league so I always had a pretty good wrestling background, a good base, and that helped with my football. It just meant my balance was always so good; a strong core, good hips and just things like that just really played a factor in how I ran the ball and tackled.

One of my biggest fan bases is probably Macedonians, they always get behind me. They're always hitting me up on Facebook speaking Macedonian to me which I don't understand, so I get my dad to translate it for me.

Nothing but respect to all the fighters that are in the UFC, but every single one of us wants to prove something. And you know, eventually, I want to prove myself in that lightweight division too.

As I get better competition, I guarantee that more finishes are gonna come, because I'll really get to use more of my skill, rather than me knowing that I'm so much better than the guy.

I want to take on fighters like Jeremy Stephens, Andre Fili... get ourselves into the Octagon and see if these guys can bully me.

I won't say too much but Conor McGregor, he likes to set a lot of traps. But they're things I would never get caught up in. The guy isn't exactly known for his cardio either, so I'd crumble him. Make it look easy.

I literally cringe every time I see someone trying to trash talk. Some people just don't have it and they try, and I find that funny.

You know, people are always asking, 'What's your brand?' and, 'What are you all about?' Then you get other people saying, 'You need to do what Connor McGregor does.' But that's not me. That's not who I am. I'm not going to talk trash and build off the bad boy image.

Fighters now, they think you have to trash talk to be marketable. Yet so much of what they're saying, it bores me.

Actually, when I first started dropping weight to fight, my biggest worry was how my smaller body would look compared to the size of my massive head.

My first four fights in amateur at middleweight, and the first four professional were at welterweight. And I just kind of went down from there.

I want to fight on home soil in Perth.

I've pictured myself fighting a whole bunch of people. Not only the Max Holloway, but also Conor, Cejudo, Korean Zombie, even Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Sometimes there's just no room for apologies.

You know, martial arts is all about respect and discipline and it's always been about that. But again, people are starting to forget that, people are missing that, and this is where I believe I can help and it's good for our sport.

I could be sparring mates and you're meant to hit 'em, but we'll be sparring and usually I try and stop at the face, or I don't really try and follow through, but sometimes they walk into them and I say 'oh sorry mate.' They get angry and say 'we're sparring get into it,' but I dunno, I think I'm so used to saying sorry.

This sport can be very unforgiving.

I had bad back injuries; two bulging discs and a broken fragment off a disc, all in my sciatic nerve.

One thing in this game is you've gotta stay positive.

It's always an unreal feeling to get the win, but to get it in the UFC - especially on my debut - it was amazing.

If there's one thing I'd say to anyone out there, is that if you're in this game, it's a rollercoaster. There's a lot of ups and downs.

Robert Whittaker has really opened eyes, look what he's doing.

I believe I'm a similar style to Khabib when it comes to the ground and stuff, but I believe I've got a whole 'nother, higher level of striking.