Alexander Volkanovski could very well be New Zealand's most loved Australian.
The UFC featherweight is shooting for the stars this weekend in Las Vegas when he challenges champion Max Holloway at UFC 245.
"The Great" trains at Auckland's City Kickboxing (CKB) gym alongside New Zealand mixed martial arts trailblazers Israel Adesanya and Dan Hooker.
The gym is highly regarded as one of the very best MMA training facilities in the world, championing a 97 percent UFC win rate since the start of 2017.
While very much a proud Australian, Volkanovski admits he's starting to feel a little bit Kiwi, given he spends up to nine months of the year in Auckland.
"I come here and do my camps and I also help some of the boys out with their camps," Volkanovski told Newshub.
"The guys have welcomed me in like you wouldn't believe. This feels like home for me and I feel very much like an honorary New Zealander now.
"It's an amazing gym and yeah we have some big names here that everyone is familiar with, but I can tell you this place is full of absolute beasts.
"People you haven't heard of. Guys and girls that aren't in the UFC that I think would do very well if they were in the UFC.
"That's how high level this gym is.
"I guarantee you there will be more quality UFC fighters coming through from this gym.
"I love it here because we are a family and we are a team.
"It's an unreal feeling."
The 30-year-old former rugby league player faces as stiff a challenge as there is inside the Octagon when he attempts to wrestle a UFC title away from Holloway.
The Hawaiian sensation has won his last 14 featherweight fights, including stopping UFC geat Jose Aldo twice in 2017.
Holloway is regarded by most pundits as the greatest featherweight of all-time ahead of Aldo and Conor McGregor. That high praise is warranted given the 28-year-old's body of work, fighting 11 times since the start of 2015.
But Volkanovski believes he holds the secret to stopping the pressure game of the champion.
"Everyone knows how good Max is.
"Everyone knows he is one of the very best in the world, but on Sunday I'm going to show everyone why I'm a better fighter.
"I'm ready to take that belt - I'm ready to show just how good I am
"A lot of Max's opponents, while they are of a very high level, they have been a bit one dimensional. I have many aspects to my MMA game that I am very good at and I'll show that at UFC 245.
"I believe I am on a whole other level. I have so many tools and I believe my fight IQ is higher and I will prove the doubters wrong.
"That's why I am a bad matchup because I have that wrestling base.
"But at the same time, he won't be easy to take down. He will use his length and his range to stop the takedown, but that's when all my other stuff will work. I will use that to my advantage. I will be calculated and I will mix up my offence and make it hard for Max to pull the trigger.
"If he tries to come at me and break me he will find out very early I cannot be broken."
Volkanovski's confidence in his ability is driven by the hard work of his coaching team.
Led by CKB's head coach Eugene Bareman and Holloway's long-time coach Joe Lopes, Volkanovski's team have dissected every inch of Holloway's fighting DNA to form a gameplan that they believe will dethrone the featherweight king.
Bareman's track record is impeccable as a coach.
The New Zealander has never cornered a losing fighter in the UFC.
"I really do believe that the guys in charge of this gym are they very best at breaking fights down," Holloway said.
"I just love how deep they look into everything and forge a gameplan.
"There are things that Max thinks he does very well that we see as an opening and Max isn't the wiser.
"On the other side there are holes in my game that he will try and exploit but they won't be there anymore. We just delve very deep into the fight and unwrap what we think might happen."
Should Volkanovski claim UFC gold, CKB will be the first gym outside of the United States and Brazil to house two UFC champions at the same time.
