Ill and unmedicated, Volkanovski still stops undefeated Evloev to retain UFC featherweight title

Alexander Volkanovski retained his UFC featherweight title at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, stopping the previously undefeated Movsar Evloev in the second round — all while fighting through an illness he had chosen not to treat.

The Australian champion, now 29-4, revealed after the bout that he had been offered medication cleared by the UFC ahead of his title defence but turned it down. His reasoning was characteristically stubborn: he worried that taking it might be perceived as gaining an advantage, even though its only purpose would have been to ease his symptoms.

“I thought people might look at it as an advantage even though it would only be so I wouldn’t feel as bad and as sick,” Volkanovski said during a post-fight media scrum. “I turned it down, even though the UFC and everyone else were saying, ‘No, you’re allowed to do this. You can take it. Why aren’t you doing it?’”

Rather than viewing the illness as a setback, Volkanovski said he reframed it as an additional test of his resolve — a mindset his team did not share.

“Not many people would choose to do that, I guess,” he added. “But I looked at it more like, ‘Nah, I like the idea of this being more of a challenge now.’ Let me put it this way: my team weren’t happy with me. They weren’t happy at all, but I guess they weren’t surprised either.”

Evloev entered the contest with an unblemished professional record, making the finish all the more emphatic. Volkanovski’s decision to compete without any medical relief underlines a competitive mentality that has defined his reign as featherweight champion, even if it left those in his corner exasperated.