Volkanovski Says Israel Adesanya Is Best Striker World Has Ever Seen
Alexander Volkanovski called Israel Adesanya the best striker the world has ever seen, and he drew a line between losing fights and losing the argument about skill. The UFC featherweight champion is in camp for a title defense. His longtime friend is in the same gym, and Volk used that proximity to talk about striking as an art, not a win-loss column.
“I mean, when it comes to technique, skill, overall fight IQ, skill, timing, range — like, you know what I mean?” Volkanovski said. “When it comes to that overall skill and as an art, I would say Izzy would be the best striker the world’s ever seen.”
That is a teammate’s ranking and a technician’s ranking. Volkanovski (28-4) has spent years around Adesanya at City Kickboxing and is now hosting him at Freestyle Fighting Gym in Wollongong while he prepares to defend the 145-pound title against unbeaten Movsar Evloev on Oct. 24 at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi. Adesanya left City Kickboxing after 16 years and has been filmed training in Australia. No return fight has been announced for him.
Volkanovski knew the obvious counter would come. Adesanya is a former two-time UFC middleweight champion whose recent run has been ugly. Sean Strickland outjabbed him over five rounds at UFC 293. Dricus Du Plessis submitted him. Nassourdine Imavov stopped him. Joe Pyfer finished him in the second round on March 28 in Seattle. He is 24-6 and on a four-fight losing streak. Fans treat those nights as a veto of the highlight reel.
Volk did not pretend the losses did not happen. He separated them from the craft.
“Some people be like, ‘Oh, you know, but he lost this,’ and they’re looking at, ‘Oh, this guy’s a powerful puncher,’” he said. “All right, you’ve got people that are a powerful puncher. Can they still beat someone that’s so technical? Of course. It’s a fight game. Anything can happen.”
That last sentence is the whole sport in eight words. Power punchers beat artists. Grapplers beat kickboxers. A five-round decision can make a master look ordinary. Volkanovski is saying none of that erases the timing, range, and fight IQ that made Adesanya look like a different species of middleweight when the title run was live.
The endorsement lands harder because of where both men are. Volkanovski is 37 and still the featherweight champion, tied with Jose Aldo for the most UFC title wins in the division’s history by several measures of his reign, and he has said he would think about walking away if UFC 333 goes terribly wrong. Evloev is 20-0 and a grappler who just told the champion he will do whatever he wants in Abu Dhabi. Volk’s public answer has been that he will make it a striking fight. Praising Adesanya as the purest striker alive is also a reminder of the standard he trains next to.
Adesanya is 37 and has admitted ego is part of what keeps him from retiring. He has not been given a date. Being in Wollongong with Volkanovski and Mauricio Ruffy looks like a camp, not a holiday. Until the UFC books him, it is still only training.
The “best striker the world has ever seen” line will not sit well with people who watched Strickland’s jab for 25 minutes or Pyfer’s finish. Volkanovski was not talking about who would win a street poll of highlight knockouts. He was talking about the art: technique, IQ, timing, range. He repeated skill twice because that is the point he would not give away to a knockout artist with a shorter résumé of control.
Adesanya’s championship years included five-round clinics, a kickboxing pedigree, and a style that made elite wrestlers look late. The skid since Strickland has been the other half of the tape. Volkanovski is asking the audience to hold both ideas at once. A technical striker can still get cracked. A powerful puncher can still lose the eye test. The fight game does not grade on aesthetics.
UFC 333 is six weeks away. Evloev will try to take the champion into deep water. If Volk gets the striking fight he wants, the man he just called the best striker alive is in the building as a training partner, not as a headliner. Adesanya’s next night is unbooked. Volkanovski’s is not. The ranking Volk just handed him does not get Izzy a contract. It does tell you how the featherweight champion still sees the art, even after the losses piled up.