His stocks rose as high as they possibly could in defeat, but Alex Volkanovski wasn't claiming any moral victory following his loss at the hands of Islam Makhachev on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
While he had the parochial support of his home nation, the overwhelming number of pundits felt the reigning featherweight king would struggle to make it out of the opening round against the much bigger Makhachev.
In the end, it was the Russian who was perhaps fortunate to make it out of the fifth after being dropped by a Volkanovski right hand and finishing the fight on his back after being out-struck 52-8 over the final five minutes.
The four rounds that preceded were razor close, with two judges giving Makhachev the bout three rounds to two, with the other producing an eyebrow-raising four-rounds-to-one card in favour of the champion.
The wrestling exchanges proved the biggest surprise, with Makhachev taking the Aussie down four times in nine attempts, keeping him down just once to finish the fourth round.
He never had Volkanovski close to a submission, while the home favourite also landed more total and significant strikes. As the smaller man coming up, one could make the case he didn't lose his pound-for-pound No. 1 status despite the loss.
However, the man himself thought too highly of his chances before the bout to accept any points for effort in the aftermath.
"People are proud of how that went, but I expected to go out there and win," Volkanovski said.
"I'm a winner, I try and win everything I can, I kill myself in the gym to get my hand raised. I expected to be on top and putting hands on him and dominating the whole way through, so I'm not happy with just ending up on top. I'd have been happy with my hand raised.
"I still proved a lot of people wrong. He's meant to blow everyone out of the water, as soon as he got me down it was [supposedly] game over. I told you that wasn't going to happen.
"I told you I was going get back up, I told you he won't submit me, and I was right, but I did say I was going to come out with my hand raised. We were very close, people may have thought I won, but the judges didn't, so I'm very hard on myself right now.
"A lot of people counted me out so now they're saying 'oh wow', but I was never counting myself out. I was expecting to win so I'm disappointed. It was a close fight, what can you do?"
The featherweight champ's underdog status at lightweight rested heavily on Makhachev's formidable grappling credentials, but Volkanovski said he was perhaps too cautious early on.
"I did think he was going to be stronger [than he was], I probably could have done more earlier," Volkanovski said.
"There were positions there where I thought 'he's not strong' but I thought 'maybe he's baiting me, maybe he's waiting for me to do something' so I didn't capitalise on it straight away, which I should have.
"I realised later on, maybe I could have done it earlier, maybe not, I don't know. I'll watch the fight, but it's pretty clear I could've won that fight so that's why I'm hard on myself.
"I blow people out of the water and win massive fights, and I'll still remember the one time I got hit, the one time I didn't get something. That's just the way I am, I'm very harsh on myself.
"Credit to him. I underestimated his striking, he underestimated my wrestling, what do you do? It's mixed martial arts. At least we threw it all out there."
With Makhachev having cut a swathe through all previous opponents, the closeness of Sunday's bout poses the question as to who else in the lightweight division can hang with the featherweight champion.
While a rematch is Volkanovski's obvious preference, there's no shortage of potential crowd-pleasing match-ups at 155 with the likes of Dustin Porier, Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler and possibly a returning Conor McGregor.
At featherweight, Mexican Yair Rodriguez made his pitch for the featherweight crown in claiming the interim 145-pound title with a submission win over Josh Emmett in Sunday's co-main event.
That is the most likely next step, but beyond that Volkanovski's convinced he has a future in the lightweight division.
"Me going out there and winning would have showed why I am that pound-for-pound [No.1], and you could see I could've definitely win that fight, I want that fight back," he said.
"We'll see. I need to watch the fight, I need to talk to some people. Obviously, when I go to featherweight, we know who the guy is. Shout out to Yair Rodriguez, I think it's an exciting fight so good on him.
"It was a good win by Yair, he looked sharp on the feet, he rocked [Emmett] a few times and caught him in the triangle.
"I'm not a selfish guy, I'm all about building things up. Now we've got a [contender], there's a guy at 145 that deserves that shot and it's clear. That's what I wanted, so we'll see what happens."
Download the Illawarra Mercury news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.
Sign up for breaking news emails below ...
Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
