Phuket, Thailand | July 2026
with Alex Volkanovski
The most common question I heard this week. The answer seems to be a version of Alex still doesn’t have a fight officially locked in, but all roads are pointing towards October.
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about Alex over the years, it’s that he doesn’t wait for contracts before getting to work. Champions don’t get ready when the fight is announced - they’re already ready.
So before the official 12-week fight camp begins, Alex wanted ten days of uninterrupted work.
Around the team it quickly became known as…
Saturday & Sunday
Saturday was simple.
We landed Sunday morning and Thailand immediately reminded me that “humid” is a very relative term.
The sort of humidity where your shirt loses the battle before you’ve even found the luggage carousel.
Sunday was designed to be easy.
Running into some of the OGs from the Tiger Tryouts - a story that genuinely deserves its own documentary one day. Every time I hear another story from that legendary tryout I’m blown away by the calibre of athletes who all happened to be in the one place at the one time.
That’s another blog for another day.
Unfortunately my body had other ideas.
Apparently the quickest way to acclimatise to Thailand was twelve hours of food poisoning.
Thankfully this time I had my own hotel bathroom.
My last experience getting sick in Thailand - about twenty-five years ago - involved a backpackers hostel and communal facilities that still feature in the occasional nightmare.
Monday
Monday morning.
The biggest lesson of the week?
Hydration wasn’t optional.
Thirty-two degrees with relentless humidity has a way of exposing anyone who thinks they’re fit.
One of the toughest sessions finished with Alex spending fifteen straight minutes defending terrible positions while a fresh training partner rotated in every minute.
2-3 hours training and then Maurício Ruffy landed.
Because that’s just how this world works.
The beauty of these trips isn’t just the training.
It’s everything in between.
Our travelling crew was small.
Travelling with those two has one major advantage.
The highlight was an enormous feast hidden inside a tiny Uzbek restaurant that I’d have happily walked straight past without them.
Between sessions we’d jump on the motorbikes.
Well…
Alex and Jake rode. I played backseat passenger.
I tried very hard not to become roadkill.
As someone who doesn’t ride motorcycles, cruising around Phuket watching the sunset is one of those reminders that work and life don’t always have to exist separately.
Sometimes they overlap beautifully.
It was also great catching up properly with Maurício Ruffy again.
The last time I’d seen him was UFC Sydney, although we’d already spent six weeks together while he lived in Windang preparing for that fight.
That’s enough time to build trust.
Our conversations still involve leaving Google Translate on the table between Portuguese and English.
Turns out trust is a much more valuable language than vocabulary.
Friday
Friday morning started with treating both Alex and Ruffy before one last reminder that Thailand was about to send us home.
Getting to Phuket Airport became an exercise in blindly trusting a Thai taxi driver who appeared completely unfazed by the fact visibility had reduced to roughly the length of the bonnet.
Somehow…
We made it.
Less than seven days after leaving, I walked back through the front door.
I quickly discovered that spending a week helping one of the greatest fighters on the planet prepare for another title run earns exactly zero bonus points at home.
Apparently catching up with Frank Hickman in Thailand doesn’t count as spending quality time with Frank… our puppy.
Nor does treating world-class athletes excuse the fact I hadn’t been around to help with whatever jobs had inevitably appeared while I was away.
Perspective has a funny way of finding you.
But for now…
Pre-Camp Champ Camp is done.