CLEVELAND, OHIO: While grappling with UFC champion Alexander Volkanovski, Logan Paul experienced a near "splitting in half" of his body. At his headquarters in Puerto Rico, the YouTube sensation sparred on the mats with middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and featherweight king Volkanovski.
Recently, Prime Energy, the hugely well-liked hydration beverage owned by Paul and his business partner KSI, officially sponsored the first two UFC fighters, Volkanovski and Adesanya.
‘You are so strong and dominant’
Paul acknowledged that despite Volkanovski being far smaller than him during the grappling match, he lost to the UFC champion. Volkanovski was criticized by the YouTuber in his Impaulsive show.
"You're the best in the world at what you do, I got to experience it. You are so strong and dominant, it's like I knew it going into it. You put me in a body lock and I felt like you could have tightened your legs so much and literally split me in half, I'm not doing BJJ again," he said.
He further added, "We were drilling this body triangle, where you have someone in your legs and hold them. He goes 'My legs are short, I don't do the body triangle often'. Then when we actually went to do it, he almost kills me with the body triangle. Jiu-jitsu is a whole different beast, you don't want to fight a guy in the street who knows jiu-jitsu."
‘You came back and won that fight’
One of the best fighters in the UFC pound-for-pound, Volkanovski will defend his featherweight championship against Yair Rodriguez in the main event of UFC 290 next month. Volkanovski was unsuccessful in his attempt to become a two-weight champion in February when he lost a contentious decision to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
If his fight against Rodriguez in Las Vegas goes well, the featherweight champion hopes to challenge Makhachev again. Paul extolled Volkanovski's victories and stated he is a huge admirer of his fighting style, singling out the champion's title defense against Brian Ortega in September 2021 as an encounter that particularly pleased him.
Paul stated, "You have always been a tough guy, that's the one thing I notice when watching you fight is how tough you are. When you escaped Ortega's choke, you came back and won that fight. I've said it before I even knew you, one of the first fights I saw of you that impressed me I had the instinct to speak on it because I could tell how fiery you were."
