Alexander Volkanovski talks about the cost of chasing greatness: “didn’t enjoy it as a human being”

In a sport built on grit and glory, few things are as quietly universal among fighters as this: most of them don’t actually enjoy it. The training, the pressure, the mental darkness — it’s all part of the deal. But loving the result doesn’t mean you love the process. And for former featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski, that truth hit hard after years of chasing greatness. Heading into UFC 314, he’s finally figuring out how to feel joy in the one place he used to only feel stress.

Alexander Volkanovski isn’t the first elite fighter to admit the cage has rarely felt like home. Greg Jackson used to joke with Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the locker room before fights, indulging a familiar lie: “This is the last one.” Because Cowboy, for all his wild-man image, would routinely break down before walkouts, wondering why he ever signed up to fight another man for a living.
“It’s incredibly stressful,” Jackson would tell him. But they’d tape up, warm up, and fight anyway.

That contradiction lives in many great fighters. Alexander Volkanovski has spent years trying to find peace in the chaos.
“I’ve always been this guy to build up to the fight, win it, then kind of get emotional in the relief of being done,” Volkanovski said ahead of his title bout with Diego Lopes at UFC 314. “But not properly enjoy it as a human being.”
He’s not alone. Nick Diaz once said of those pre-fight weeks, “I just despise these people who are happy to go out there… If it’s not fake, you must be crazy.” And Chael Sonnen? Nearly 50 pro fights, and still he admitted, “My biggest regret is that I didn’t enjoy any of it. It was always so stressful.”
Volk has been there too — spiraling mentally, rushing back to camp after his knockout loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 294, simply to avoid the darkness that crept in during stillness.
But now, at 36, with another shot at reclaiming the featherweight title, he wants more than just victory.
“This time, I can’t wait to go out there, do my thing, and then properly enjoy it as a human being,” Volkanovski said.
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It’s taken Volkanovski a championship, a brutal loss, and years of self-denial to land on MMA’s quiet truth: joy isn’t in the result — it’s in the rare moments of presence along the way. Now, with the end closer than the beginning, he’s finally fighting for something deeper — peace.