My Concerns with Volk

It's been a while since I've listened to a post-fight press conference, and now that I have, I am a bit concerned about Alex Volkanovski.
These concerns are bred purely from what he has said after the fight, as well as his mentality going into the fight. I want it to be clear that I do not think his stock dropped after this fight, and I don't think that he's washed or "done" or anything of that matter. He is still the greatest champion of arguably the deepest division right now, and I personally think that he will beat Topuria.

"He's not a guy you take a fight on short notice with, but I needed it" (explains not for the money, but for other reasons)
"I never thought I would struggle with it, but for some reason when I wasn't fighting or in camp, I just do my head in" 
   He then explains how he doesn't understand why he was mentally struggling, because he has a great life and great family and tons of support, but that essentially training for a fight and fighting are the only things that keep his head straight.

There's then some back-and-forth with a journalist where they both seem to agree that a lot of fighters struggle with these issues, and can go to "dark places" (referencing Tyson Fury here) when not active.

Now of course he is emotional, understandably. Volk is a man who made it to the pinnacle of the sport and has been described as one of the hardest working inside and outside of the gym. This translates to many of his fights as well, dude is a ****** dog hence why he has become so admired by fans and athletes alike.

I always saw him as a guy who would go out on top, AND he very well still can and hopefully will. Losing twice to Islam does not change that at all. 
But he's 35 now, at featherweight, and like I wrote above he admits to having developed these strong urges recently and had never had this particular mindset before. Again, that is the mindset of NEEDING to fight in order to be in a "healthy" (my word, not his) state of mind.

GSP, Nunes, hell even DC all quit when they realized that they'd accomplished all they needed to, and that further pursuing fighting was way more of a risk than hanging them up with legacy intact.
Anderson, BJ, Chuck, Barao, literally an endless list of champions who couldn't let go of that itch. 

I'm not describing anything new here, I suppose what I'm saying is that I always expected that Volk would be the guy who gets out on top, which again, he still can. His comments are concerning in that if he continues this mindset going forward, especially into his later 30s, it could be a disaster and he may not be able to shake that itch to fight.

 I have only watched Dana's post fight for the past many years.

The UFC doesnt know how to make true stars anymore so theres little need to hear them talk.

as for Alex, he should have told the UFC no.
I dont care how much the UFC offered.  You are already a champion. You are already making enough money.

You dont go into a title fight with a top 3 P4P fighter on 9-10 days notice.
Pure hubris from alex that you could call stupidity. 

If he takes the fight with the Georgia man in Dec, I have him losing. 

That's what I don't like, I really don't think that he did do it for the money. He alluded to being in a bad headspace and when he got the call for Islam it was what he needed for himself. 
And now he's just been KO'd, insisting that he fight asap and be kept busy. I'm choosing to believe him when he says it's not for the money. 

I don't necessarily think that it was stupid of him to take the fight, but definitely unwise to go into it thinking that you're going to win. 

And I would hope that there's no way they'd let him fight again that early. 

This was a bad loss for him, not only did he lose, he got knocked out (TKO'd) in the first round. It is not a wise choice to come back in and fight as quickly as he said he will return. That said, he hasn't taken a large amount of damage of his career but I believe he needs some time off.