Alexander Volkanovski isn’t done just yet, according to his countryman Robert Whittaker.

The Australian former featherweight champion fights Diego Lopes for the vacant 145-pound title at this weekend’s UFC 314 event in Miami, Florida as the 36-year-old seeks to regain gold and arrest a recent decline in results which has seen him lose three of his past four fights to two of the standout pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria.

But despite those setbacks which occurred at the absolute summit of the game, Volkanovski remains an elite competitor — and Whittaker says this will become evident when the cage door closes in the Sunshine State late this Saturday night.

“Volk’s skill set’s top-tier,” Whittaker announced on the MMArcade Podcast, as reported by MMA Fighting.

“I can see him chopping that calf, doing his step-through left hand. I can see him pushing Diego backwards, dropping for doubles against the fence. He stopped using it as much once he was champ, except for against people like Yair [Rodriguez]… but he wrestled a lot in the beginning of his career and utilised it to great effect. So I reckon we see well-rounded Volk top-tier skill set, and we have another champ in Australia.”

The former middleweight champion added of Volkanovski: “I think the million-dollar question is what Volk are we going to see in the Octagon come that night, come UFC 314?

“Everyone was already talking about his losses to Makhachev, his knockout, and then back on to the knockout with Topuria, back on to his age, and as MMA fans like to do, as soon as he lost they started throwing his age around and calling him a wash, which is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. MMA fans are the best and worst of us as people, they really are.

“The truth is he’s been out for a while now. He’s coming off two losses in a row, Makhachev and Topuria, bad losses the last couple. His age is a factor in this. Which Volk are we going to see in the Octagon come 314?”

In Lopes, Volkanovski faces a fighter in the best form of his career as he steps into his maiden world title opportunity. And ultimately, Whittaker predicts that Volkanovski’s cage IQ will prove too much for his Brazilian challenger.

“I see Volk going in there, using full skill sets, landing shots, going for takedowns, wearing Diego Lopes down, riding him for five rounds, and winning a decision,” he explained. “Or by getting him out of there in the later end of the rounds.”