Alexander Volkanovski

Volkanovski married his wife Emma on 12 October 2012. The couple have four daughters, including Ariana and Airlie. His father was born in the village of Beranci in modern North Macedonia, while his mother was born in Greece.

He chose his fight moniker "The Great" as an homage to Alexander the Great, noting that both shared a Macedonian father and a Greek mother. Outside the cage, Volkanovski hosts a cooking show titled Cooking with Volk on his personal YouTube channel. He was awarded the Key to the City of Wollongong in May 2025.

Volkanovski took up Greco-Roman wrestling as a child in Wollongong, winning two national school titles by age 12. He stepped away from wrestling at 14 to focus on rugby league. After attending Lake Illawarra High School, he worked as a concreter in a family business.

He played front rower for the Warilla Gorillas in Group 7 Rugby League, winning the Mick Cronin Medal as the competition's best player in 2010. The following year, he earned Man of the Match honours in Warilla's grand final victory over Gerringong. To maintain conditioning during the rugby off-season, he began training in mixed martial arts at age 22 under coach Joe Lopez at Freestyle Fighting Gym. He weighed 97 kilograms (214 lb) at the time.

Fighting soon became his primary focus. Volkanovski left rugby league in late 2011 to pursue professional MMA full-time. He started in amateur bouts at middleweight before cutting down through welterweight and lightweight.

Volkanovski turned professional in May 2012. His lone regional defeat came in May 2013 against Corey Nelson at welterweight. Following that loss, he dropped to featherweight and went on a ten-fight winning streak. Along the way, he claimed titles in Pacific Xtreme Combat and the Australian Fighting Championship.

He made his UFC debut on 26 November 2016 at lightweight, stopping Yusuke Kasuya in Melbourne. He then dropped permanently to featherweight. A steady climb through the rankings included victories over Mizuto Hirota, Shane Young, Jeremy Kennedy, and Darren Elkins.

His breakthrough into title contention came in late 2018. Volkanovski stopped Chad Mendes at UFC 232, then travelled to Rio de Janeiro in May 2019 to earn a unanimous decision over longtime champion José Aldo at UFC 237.

Volkanovski captured the UFC Featherweight Championship on 14 December 2019 at UFC 245, defeating Max Holloway by unanimous decision. The victory made him the first Australian-born fighter to win a UFC belt. He defended the title against Holloway in an immediate rematch at UFC 251, earning a split decision.

At UFC 266 in September 2021, Volkanovski survived submission attempts from Brian Ortega before claiming a unanimous decision. He followed that with a fourth-round technical knockout of Chan Sung Jung at UFC 273.

A trilogy bout against Holloway at UFC 276 in July 2022 resulted in a unanimous decision win, with all three judges scoring it 50-45. Volkanovski unified the featherweight title a year later by finishing interim champion Yair Rodríguez in the third round at UFC 290.

Seeking a second division title, Volkanovski stepped up to lightweight to challenge Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 in Perth. He lost a unanimous decision. Eight months later, he stepped in on short notice for a rematch at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi, suffering a first-round knockout loss.

He returned to featherweight four months later at UFC 298 in February 2024, losing the belt after being knocked out by Ilia Topuria in the second round. It was his first defeat at featherweight in over a decade.

After Topuria vacated the championship, Volkanovski returned to the Octagon at UFC 314 on 12 April 2025 in Miami. He defeated Diego Lopes by unanimous decision to reclaim the vacant featherweight title, becoming the oldest fighter to win the division title at age 36. He defended the belt against Lopes in a rematch at UFC 325 in Sydney, once again winning by unanimous decision to match Aldo's record for the most featherweight title fight wins in UFC history.