UFC champ Alexander Volkanovski details COVID-19 experience

UFC featherweight world champion Alexander Volkanovski is telling the world of the nightmare he went through after testing positive for COVID-19.

The 32-year-old from Australia was slated to defend his strap against one-time world title challenger Brian Ortega at UFC 260 last month but was forced to pull out of the fight after he caught the virus.

“I started feeling it in the lungs a little bit, and I started feeling uncomfortable. I started coughing up phlegm, and it was coming up pinky bloody with a bit of blood in there, and I was lucky I had (Jordan Sullivan) with The Fight Dietitian and he knows a bit,” he recalled in a video.

“I was like, ‘What’s this?’ and he’s like, ‘That’s usually the lungs and things like that.’ That’s when I thought maybe we should start looking into this. I was having bad fevers and headaches, but that’s sort of common.”

Thankfully, Volkanovski was able to overcome the virus and is ready to come home. He credits his healthy lifestyle for surviving the scare and warned those who still don’t believe that the virus is very real.

“I think if I was unhealthy, maybe I would’ve got other problems, and you can see how people pass away and things like that. This is quite serious.” -- BAP, GMA News