Alexander Volkanovksi likes a challenge.

The former longtime UFC featherweight champion has made clear his intentions to leave an indelible mark on this sport before he finally decides to hang up his 4oz gloves, as shown by his two-time pursuit of lightweight pacesetter Islam Makhachev — the second bout of which took place on less than two weeks’ notice.

And now, without a fight booked in the immediate horizon, the Australian is assessing his next move — be it at featherweight, lightweight… or heavyweight?

“There is a lot of exciting fights at lightweight but then again, the UFC weren’t fond — even when I was champion — of floating between divisions. It’s something that they don’t really want to do. If I was going to choose to do lightweight, they’re gonna want me to stay there,” Volkanovski told Oscar Willis of The Mac Life in Manchester on Thursday.

“Obviously, I’m going to be getting antsy but we’ve got plenty of good content coming [on my YouTube channel]. But I will stay ready. I’ll be training really hard and be fight-fit and if there is a late notice… because that sh*t excites me, it’s gets me going, but I’ll actually be ready for it this time and make sure I’m in good nick all year round.

“Even me having that in my head, you know, ‘If you have to save the day here or there’, it’s going to help my training and keep things exciting.”

“You always want to find purpose, right?” he adds of his outside of the cage activities, such as his ‘Cooking with Volk’ YouTube show. “I love all that stuff, so I can do all that while finding purpose in the gym — just in case.

“You never know, if Leon or somebody else gets injured… do I need to go to welterweight? The heavyweights? Mate, believe it or not I’d do it.”