Michael Bisping thinks the UFC’s 35 and over curse shouldn’t apply to Alexander Volkanovski.
The success rate for UFC title wins at the age of 35 and over in a weight class below 185 pounds has been very low. Volkanovski, 35, makes his sixth featherweight title defense against Ilia Topuria (14-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 298 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) headliner at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
“It’s a stat,” Bisping told ESPN. “It’s certainly true. He did point out, though, that a lot of the people that make up that stat, they were the challengers, not the champions. But you can’t look at numbers and stats like that and make that reflect onto a person. Alexander Volkanovski is a special fighter. We’ve seen what he’s done time and time again, the people that he’s beaten, the fashion that he’s beating them in. So I don’t think it applies.”
Volkanovski is coming off a knockout loss to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev this past October at UFC 294, but Bisping thinks that shouldn’t result in people discrediting Volkanovski – especially because he stepped in on short notice.
“We know he’s coming off the back of that loss to Islam Makhachev, but short notice, rolled the dice, stepped up a weight class – that was always a bad idea,” Bisping said. “But to be great, you’ve got to roll the dice and do things like that.
“So I don’t think there’s any reflection on him or his ability, what he can do at featherweight when you look at that fight. I guess we’re going to find out Saturday night, but I really don’t think his age is going to matter at all.”
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