Alex Volkanovski details insane journey he made to be UFC 240 backup fighter

Australian featherweight contender Alex Volkanovski is in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for UFC 240, and is prepared to spring in to action in the event that Max Holloway or Frankie Edgar is unable to compete in the main event.

In the end, both Holloway and Edgar made weight, which means Volkanovski won’t get a short-notice title shot due to a weigh-in blunder — although it’s still possible some other disaster could render his services necessary.

VIDEO: @alexvolkanovski details his roughly 38 hour journey to Edmonton to cut weight in order to be a backup for the #UFC240 main event.

He told us that he cut 6 kg (13 pounds) from yesterday to this morning. pic.twitter.com/988nMnSDmX

— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) July 26, 2019

“It wasn’t official until a few weeks ago,” Volkanovski said after weighing in (via TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter). “The UFC said ‘look, we’ve learned our lesson, we want you to officially make weight.’ They’re obviously paying me and stuff like that.’

“I want [Holloway and Edgar] to fight,” he continued. “I’m not here hoping that they get injured. Let them fight, I’ll get my paycheck and fight them later in the year.”

Volkanovski went on to detail the great lengths he took to be in Edmonton and make championship weight. It sounds like it was an absolute odyssey.

“The travel was pretty crazy,” he said. “It was 37-plus hours in terms of travel just to get here, and I had to drive through the border [into Canada]

“I went from New Zealand to Sydney, Sydney to San Francisco, drove from Seattle to Vancouver — did the visa through the border that way — then flew from Vancouver to Edmonton,” he added. “It was like 38 hours or something like that. It was crazy. That rattled me all week.”

Unsurprisingly, this massive, international journey did not make it easy for the former lightweight to cut down to the featherweight division’s 145-pound limit.

“It left me pretty heavy all week, to be honest,” Volkanovski said. “I had to do a pretty big weight cut. In saying that, we got it done. I’m a professional guy. I’m going to make weight either way, and I feel good now, so all good.”

Needless to say, Alex Volkanovski put in work to serve as the backup fighter for UFC 240. Hopefully the UFC made it well worth his while.

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/26/2019.