UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski feels he wasn't given a completely fair go in his wild UFC 266 win over Brian Ortega in Las Vegas.
The 32-year-old Aussie retained the belt with a unanimous decision win over Ortega but had to pull off some incredible submission escapes in order to secure the victory.
After celebrating the win with a trip to the Las Vegas Raiders NFL game and a night out on the town, Volkanovski finally sat down to watch the fight back.
Speaking to Sporting News on Tuesday, Volkanovski said both the commentary and officiating appeared to be on his opponent's side.
"There was probably some biased commentary I thought but other than that pretty happy with the performance," Volkanovski said.
"It was pretty silly. You look at it, you watch it and have any idea- it just seemed like [the commentators] were watching a completely different fight."
Former fighters Daniel Cormier and Paul Felder joined Jon Anik in the commentary booth and, particularly over the opening two rounds, appeared to ignore several landed strikes from Volkanovski, while celebrating those thrown by Ortega.
Volkanovski also called out the handling of the break between rounds following the end of the third.
After some vicious ground and pound, Ortega had to be helped to his stool by members of his corner before being assessed by a doctor and referee Herb Dean ahead of the commencement of the fourth round.
"You’re not allowed to do that. That’s a TKO, the ref stops the fight because the cornermen aren’t allowed to aid your fighter," Volkanovski added.
"Lifting him up and putting him on the stool. He stayed down like he didn’t want to get up. He thought it was over.
"With the biased commentary and them throwing sh*t like that, it made me feel like there was a lot of bias from all angles, so that’s gonna need to change.
"I might need to be more vocal about that. I’ll wait until I’m not hungover and maybe I’ll have something to say."
Volkanovski, who has at times struggled for recognition of his achievements in the UFC, said everyone needs to get used to him being the champ.
"Obviously he’s American and all that, but I dunno [why there was bias]," he said.
"That’s all I can go off right now but that belt ain’t going nowhere, they’ve just got to jump on board and get over it.
"Some of that stuff, they did it after the third round and the fourth round, giving him extra time.
"Not only did they help him up and do all that sh*t, the doctor wanted to stop it but Herb was just giving him all the time in the world to recover and waited until he answered the question right.
"He got every question wrong before that, he was looking the wrong way, you name it. He had a whole extra minute on top of that.
"There was a lot of people doing him favours through that fight I feel, especially after watching it back.
"Giving him that time to recover and all that, that’s bullsh*t but what do you do."
As for the fight itself, Volkanovski said he almost felt the title slipping away when Ortega locked in a guillotine in the third round, but a recent decision to shave his head may have saved him.
"It was tight. There was moments where I was like, 'Oh, man, this could be it. I don’t know if this belt’s going back to my family. That’s how close it was," he added.
"I was just gonna keep fighting until I either went out or I got out.
“We had a fresh cut that day, just in case we were in that position, we were ready to get out, so lucky we did.
"Bald Volk is here to stay, 100 per cent."