Despite Brian Ortega’s recent improvements, Alexander Volkanovski thinks his pressure will be too much.

UFC featherweight champion Volkanovski (22-1 MMA, 9-0 UFC) will meet Ortega in the first quarter of 2021, but a date is yet to be official. Dana White teased a February matchup, but Volkanovski would rather see the fight pushed back a little more so he’s able to get enough time to conduct his camp at City Kickboxing in New Zealand.

Ortega (15-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC) is coming off arguably his best performance yet in which he shut out Chan Sung Jung and outstruck him over the course of five rounds in the UFC on ESPN+ 38 headliner.

The win repositioned Ortega into title contention and caught the champion’s attention.

“It took me by surprise because I didn’t expect him to fight – I wouldn’t say fight smart, but his shot selection, there was a couple of things that I just didn’t expect,” Volkanovski told SCMP MMA. “I thought he would just be looking for the finish, that’s what he does.

“But there, he showed patience, shot selection, fakes – a lot of things that we work on. Whether he took some notes out of our book, I don’t know, but he’s obviously stepped it up and he looked good. He really did look good.”

However, despite Volkanovski being impressed with Ortega’s advancements, he remains unfazed. He sees a similar game plan that Max Holloway was able to implement when he battered Ortega in 2018 as a blueprint that will work.

“I believe I’m going to break him,” Volkanovski said. “The way that Max did, I believe that’s somewhere that I can go with – especially with my pressuring style. This is a fun fight for me because I believe I get to put the pressure on. I get to be in his face, which is fun. People want to see that.

“There’s levels to this, and I believe my pressure, when I use it, my pressure’s on a whole other level that not many people in the world have ever felt.”

Volkanovski is coming off back-to-back wins over Holloway and has said on numerous occasions that he’s excited to take on a new challenge in the featherweight division. He acknowledges Ortega is dangerous everywhere, but isn’t afraid to dabble on the ground with the jiu-jitsu ace if necessary.

“It’s exciting for me, but at the same time, I really do believe I’m just at a whole other level,” Volkanovski said. “I’m so well-rounded. I can take the fight wherever it is. I’m the guy that never quits. With me, it’s so easy to say I’m well-rounded, but it goes so much deeper than that. There are so many little things that I just have down to a tee, and I work so hard to make sure that I am such a complete fighter that if someone gives me trouble somewhere, I can always take it somewhere else.

“Even if I have to go to the ground with Ortega … I don’t need to worry about him taking me down. We’ll see. Obviously, I can’t give too much away, but if I want to take someone down, I can. Am I going to have a BJJ match with him in the middle of a UFC fight? No. But again, I’m a very smart fighter. There’s different rules to just on the BJJ mats. We can punch you on the face. We’ve got a cage. There’s a lot of obstacles in an MMA cage, especially when you can use your hands and elbows and whatnot.”