Volkanovski flew to the Middle East to defend his featherweight title on July 12, fighting former champion Max Holloway, who he dethroned in December.

While Volkanovski easily won that fight, the rematch was considerably closer. He took a split-decision victory, winning three out of five rounds on two judges' scorecards. The other scored three for Holloway.

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“He made good adjustments," Volkanovski said. "We didn’t expect that, we thought he’d still stick to his regular style and stance, but he tried checking the kicks at the start and stood his ground a bit more.

"He was a bit shorter with his stance, he didn’t want to lean too heavy on that front leg like he did in the first fight."

There was little doubt that the Australian won the final two rounds and the American won the first two. But the third round remains a point of contention for a lot of fans and even UFC President Dana White.

“At the end of the day, I know it was a close fight, but it was quite a reaction," he said of the fans that took to social media to call it a "robbery".

Days later, some of the detractors conceded that on second watch, the fight could have indeed been Volkanovski's, and was at the very least not a miscarriage of justice.

“It’s all good, I’m not letting it get to me – I know I won and there’s a lot of people that know I won as well," Volkanovski said. "We both knew we had to win that last round.”

His corner was so confident that he had won the third round that there were no instructions to look for a knockout in the later rounds.

“We weren’t in a position where we thought we needed the finish," he said.

“We knew that we’d done enough – we had no idea we’d get that reaction.”

It is unclear who's next for Volkanovski. He wants to wait until the division has a clear top contender and said a third fight with Holloway would be "ridiculous". It's hard to disagree.

And although it could be a while until crowds are present for UFC cards again, Volkanovski wants another fight before the end of the year and he believes Australia is uniquely placed to accommodate just such a contest.

“It’s looking like if there’s going to be another UFC event somewhere in the world, it could be here," Volkanovski said. “You never know what’s going to happen in these crazy times.”