Alexander Volkanovski has gone Hollywood.
Well, not exactly, but the affable UFC featherweight champion had the chance to flex his comedic chops in a well-received ad for Sportsbet in his native Australia.
The ad’s premise pokes fun at “the over-35 curse” that refers to a remarkable, true stat: Male UFC fighters age 35 or older at 170 pounds and under are 1-21 in championship contests against younger opponents — and 0-14 at 155 or below.
Over the 2:15 runtime, the 35-year-old Volkanovski — clad in an brown and beige outfit the remnants of the Greatest Generation might wear — scoffs as being “too old” while nearly succumbing to a telephone credit card fraud scam, nodding off during a VHS tape film session to study his younger challenger and vowing to fight anyone, anytime, as long as it’s not during “tomato season” or after 11 p.m.
While his comedic timing is as on point as his technique in the cage, Volkanovski swears he’s focusing on fighting for now, though he wouldn’t rule out more acting down the line.
“I really enjoy it,” Volkanovski told The Post on Tuesday via video call. “Everyone’s really surprised, because it’s always different crews that I’m working [filming ads], and they always look surprised like they don’t expect some athlete to go out there and just, one take, do these things in one take, and even add my own flavor.”
If there is a career to be made of hamming it up, that’s for later when he doesn’t have fights to win and “curses” to break.
Volkanovski’s chance to buck the 35-plus trend arrives at UFC 298 on Saturday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ pay-per-view), when he aims for a sixth 145-pound title defense against 27-year-old Ilia Topuria — in a bout that figures to finish before 11 p.m. local time in Anaheim, Calif.
Here’s the thing: Volkanovski (26-3, 16 finishes) already fell victim to the “curse” back in late October, when he came up short for the second time in 2023 of his bid to unseat Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title.
That fight, which the former rugby player turned MMA titan took on less than two weeks’ notice, occurred less than a month after Volkanovski blew the candles on his 35th birthday.
It’s not hard to discount that result against what Volkanovski will try to do against the unbeaten Topuria (14-0, 12 finishes) at Honda Center, given it came with such little preparation time against a larger opponent who already had defeated him nine months earlier — the first time by competitive decision, the second via first-round, head-kick knockout.
To demystify the 0-14 mark for the lightweight-or-less sect of the so-called curse, it must be noted that the defending champion was 35 or older in just one instance: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno IV last January, when Figueiredo — barely a month out from turning 25 — dropped the final bout of their epic 25-month tetralogy.
“I don’t let this championship life distract me,” said Volkanovski of why he is built to defy the age-related trend. “I’m still just dad [to my three girls] and that same guy that’s always in the gym just trying to be better. … Until I start seeing declines in certain things, I don’t give a damn about any stats. That’s just how I look at things, so it’s not getting to me one bit.”
The challenger Topuria, the German-born Georgian who moved to Spain in his teens, enters the bout with as much hype and momentum as any challenger Volkanovski has faced during his more than 1,500 consecutive days as featherweight champion — he’s one of just eight fighters to hold UFC gold for so long in one reign.
Oozing confidence and drawing comparisons for his potential to become a star akin to Conor McGregor from the likes of UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier, oddsmakers are giving Topuria better odds to unseat Volkanovski at 145 pounds than any previous challenger, including the second and third meetings with Max Holloway — from whom the Aussie won his championship in December 2019.
Volkanovski, who at various times during his four-year run atop the division has called upon fellow 145ers to make a stronger case to challenge him, grants that Topuria is “the right guy right now” to face him for the title.
But the champ isn’t particularly impressed with the path taken to this point by Topuria, whose only signature wins since arriving in the UFC in 2020 are over former Josh Emmett and Bryce Mitchell, neither of whom reached the point of challenging Volkanovski.
“Has he fought the right guys or the top athletes or the top contenders to get himself to a No. 1 condenser fight like a lot of other guys? No, maybe not,” said Volkanovski, who during his own ascent defeated Hall of Famer Jose Aldo and two-time title challenger Chad Mendes in the 12 months before beating Holloway for the first of three times.
“But I’ve taken out all the other top guys. He’s clearly next, so it’s clear that he is the next guy, but he is just lucky for the timing because he’s had a lot easier way to the title fight.”