Beyond the cage, the appeal of UFC featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski lies in the fact that he's never changed.
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Life has, no doubt. But whether it's headlining the Wollongong Wars at Anita's Theatre in Thirroul, or a UFC pay-per-view to an audience of millions, the former Warilla Gorilla remains the same guy.
In the eyes of the Illawarra faithful, "Volk" could probably still walk from Windang to Wollongong on water. Broader opinions though, they're more fickle.
It's a lesson the 32-year-old has learned in one of global sport's toughest schools, where the squeaky wheel gets the grease like no other vocation.
"It's a little bit different to other sports and you just have to adapt to it and get a bit of an understanding," Volkanovski said.
"You can be the best, you get the belt, but is it ever enough in some people's eyes? Should you even be trying to impress these people anyway? Probably not.
"Being in this position [as champion], no matter what, you're going to have your favourites, you're going to have your haters and all that type of stuff. If you want to get to that stage, you've got to understand how the game works. I've got a better understanding of all that now."
His rivalry with Hawaiian fan-favourite Max Holloway has been a crash-course. Volkanovski boasts two wins over the former champion, the first thoroughly and the second more controversially.
It still looms over the build-up to his next fight with Brian Ortega. Volkanovski admits there was a time it would've consumed his thoughts, but that time's long passed.
"You're fighting a fan-favourite and a poster-boy for the UFC [in Holloway]. You've just got to understand how that goes," he said.
"After I go out mop the floor with Ortega they're going to want that rematch, it's probably what they're going to throw at me next. I'll go out there and hit him with a three-peat [of wins] and people are going to come up with [excuses].
"I'm not going to let that swirl in my head. The problem for me [early on] was I'd worry too much about what people think about me, but you're going to get people hating you no matter what.
"That's the game. I'm not going anywhere, that belt's not going anywhere, I'm here for a long time and I'm just going be me."
That attitude was vital in coaching on The Ultimate Fighter reality TV series against Ortega, a task that sees a fighter largely surrender control of the narrative to producers.
Ultimately, it reflected glowingly on the Aussie, with three of the four fighters who initially reached the finale coming from Team Volkanovski.
The August 28 show will now be an all-team Volk affair after Team Ortega's only finalist, Tresean Gore, was forced out of his scheduled bout with Bryan Battle through injury and replaced by Gilbert Urbina.
It completely overturns an early 0-4 deficit and the experience was also enough to turn the vibe between Volkanovski and Ortega from nice to ice ahead of their showdown in the cage in six weeks' time.
Ortega was thoroughly outclassed by Holloway in his first shot at UFC gold, yet the Vegas pre-fight odds will almost certainly have him favourite. It's nothing new, despite Volkanovski's 9-0 record in the UFC being part of a broader 19-fight win streak stretching back a decade.
Like most things these days, the champion isn't bothered by it. There may have been some lessons on his UFC journey, but he's yet to learn what defeat feels like.
"If you're talking legacy, people will always remember the winners," Volkanovski said. "I'm going out there and I'm making a statement [Ortega's] a favourite in the UFC media, commentary and things like that so there'll probably be [the same] bias.
"Let people hate, let them say whatever they want. I'm going to go out there, fix him up, and shut his mouth."