When you go by the moniker 'Alexander The Great', you'd expect to boast a pretty impressive highlight reel. Even more so when you're the consensus best featherweight to ever step inside a UFC octagon.
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Wollongong's Alex Volkanovski will be looking to add to his GOAT resume when he faces Mexican challenger Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 this Sunday. Another win would further cement his legacy at 145 pounds.
There's never been a more popular athlete come out of the Steel City, but what's your favourite Volk moment? What's his best fight? What's his most impressive victory?
When the list of options is this long, you'd expect some debate. For Game On's part, here's a few you could consider.
Volkanovski v Holloway I - UFC 245, December 2019
Any list of this kind has to include the bout in which he first became a UFC champion. Volkanovski did so in out-pointing the man who would become his greatest rival in Hawaiian Max Holloway.
In what would become something of a pattern throughout the Aussie's career, most US pundits did not expect Volkanovski to trouble Holloway, who was then considered the best featherweight in the promotion's history.
In what was a highly technical bout, Volkanovski claimed a unanimous decision victory, largely on the back of relentless leg kicks.
It was a five-round shut-out on one card, the way most viewers saw the bout, though there were some, including Holloway himself, that thought the reigning champ was dudded.
With good grace, Volkanovski accepted he would need to beat Holloway again to truly claim champ status given his predecessors previously long and impressive reign. Who knew what that would become the start of.
Volkanovski v Mendes- UFC 232, December 2018
He would go on to notch far more significant victories, but this bout remains this columnists' favourite.
Volk had built a platform and made a well-overdue entry into the UFC 2016 and had made light work of a number of gatekeepers to earn a marquee bout.
This was his entry into the big-time against a three-time title challenger. Mendes had twice faced Brazilian legend Jose Aldo, coming up short but producing one of the all-time great featherweight bouts in their second meeting.
Mendes had also had his way early on in his bout with Irish superstar Conor McGregor before gassing out in a fight he'd taken on five weeks notice.
He subsequently copped a doping ban, but on his return many felt he represented the Aussie battler's ceiling.
Despite being dropped in round one, Volk demolished Mendes late in the second round to notch a victory that sent the Californian into retirement.
It was the first major notch on Volkanovski's UFC belt and made a believer of doubters who thought a game slugger from Windang couldn't possibly reach the big time.
Volkanovski v Aldo - UFC 237, May 2019
There are some who still consider Aldo the featherweight GOAT given his length and quality of resume, including a decade-long undefeated streak in the WEC?UFC.
Volkanovski has shown a penchant for beating opponents at their own game, never more so than this bout in Aldo's home city of Rio.
Aldo boasted some of the most lethal leg kicks ever seen in any division, but Volkanovski took him apart with kicks of his own, taking the bout away from the then former champion in his own backyard.
He later described the methodical win as "doing what I had to" but there's no glossing over a scalp as esteemed as Aldo's in his own backyard.
Volkanovski v Ortega -UFC 266, September 2021
How did he get out of that choke-hold?
In the grander scheme of his career, this was the fight the changed everything for 'Alexander the Great'.
After a controversial second victory over Holloway, the Hawaiians extensive fanbase had become relentless in its criticism of the Aussie, claiming he was a fake champion who'd been gifted a decision.
There were plenty Stateside who felt jiu-jitsu whiz Ortega would expose that in this spiteful bout following the filming of a TUF series that let animosity fester in the lead-up.
Volkanovski was picking the American apart through three rounds when he dropped his guard for a moment and found himself caught in a deep guillotine choke that looked certain to end his title reign.
Instead, Volk showed incredible composure to escape the hold only to fall into Ortega's signature triangle choke moments later.
Again he escaped to unleash vicious ground-and-pound that saw Ortega barely make it out of the round. The Great' dominated the remainder of the bout to win a unanimous decision.
While he still had a final score to settle with Holloway, the victory was the beginning of getting his due from fans who began to ask the question - is there anyone who can beat this guy at 145?
Volkanovski Holloway III - UFC 276, July 22
Perhaps the sweetest victory of them all.
Holloway's fans had proven saltier than Lake Illawarra following their man's close loss to Volkanovski in their second meeting.
Despite being 2-0 over Holloway, many considered this a rubber match. By the end, people were left wondering how their rivalry had been a rivalry in the first place.
Volkanovski picked Holloway apart at will, leaving us to marvel at how he could make a guy who was clearly the second-best featherweight ever look so ordinary.
The five-round shut-out on all three cards made it hard to fathom how such a fierce rivalry could be so thoroughly put to bed.
It was a legacy-stamping performance in the GOAT debate. Holloway had twice beaten the previous holder of that mantle Aldo. With this victory, Volkanovski had beaten the man who beat the man three times.
Volkanovski v Makhachev - UFC 284, February 2023
Could 'The Great's' greatest victory have come in defeat? It's the question many were asking after Volkanovski moved up for a shot at Makhachev's lightweight title.
They have weight classes for a reason and that was the reason most experts felt the Aussie was a lamb to the slaughter facing the Dagestani destroyer who had cut a swathe through the entire lightweight division.
What chance did a smaller man have against a guy like that?
In the end it was a five-round war, Makhachev taking Volkanovski down in each round, though certainly not at will as many predicted.
He was able to control Volkanovski on the ground, but could not mount any offense and never went close to the submission win that had been at short odds before the opening bell.
Makachev was eventually saved by the bell in the fifth and final round when he was dropped by a Volkanovski left hand that saw the Aussie finish the fight on top raining down blows until the final bell.
It would become the enduring image of the fight, and will no doubt feature heavily in promos should a much-anticipated rematch occur down the track.
The 'control time' on the mat was enough for Makhachev to claim the fight four rounds to one on three highly controversial scorecards.
Illustration of that fact came when Makhachev did not claim Volkanovski's UFC No. 1 pound-for-pound status despite the win.
'Robbery' is the most over-used term in combat sports, but it flew thick and fast in the aftermath to the bout.
For his part, Volkanovski has stated it was "not a robbery" in the lead-up to Sunday's bout with Rodriguez.
Should he see off the Mexican, a chance to settle the score with Makhachev awaits.
Volkanovski v Mullarkey - AFC 15, May 2016
It's from the vault, but this list has to include Volk's most impressive KO victory to date.
There's some irony in this one given the pair our now good mates, with Jamie Mullarkey having forged a stellar UFC resume that's seen him regularly finish camps at Freestyle MMA, Windang.
It was not the case in the lead-up to their domestic showdown, with coach Joe Lopez once telling this columnist it remains the angriest he'd seen Volkanovski before a bout.
It showed in an incredible spinning elbow KO that he remains yet to top in the stoppage stakes despite going on to far grander things.
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