In a sport where the squeaky wheel so often gets the grease, the Shellharbour product has rarely been one to engage in pre-fight trash talk, unless provoked, and what marks the build-up to a potential showdown is the mutual respect the pair share.

It's a stark contrast to the likes of two-weight champion Henry Cejudo's attempts to call out the 145-pound king, or the smack talk fellow featherweight Chan Sung Jung has tried to goad him into.

Ortega, who stamped a vitriolic build-up with a dismantling of the 'Korean Zombie' in October, didn't feel the need to go down that path, labelling the Wollongong native a "cool guy and a great champion" in the aftermath. A famously humble champion, Volkanovski is singing from the same sheet ahead of a touted match-up in the cage.

"I don't believe the only way to hype up a fight is for you to bad-mouth each other," Volkanovski said.

"I don't go into any fight thinking 'I need to hype up this thing up'. I feel like it's just a waste of time, especially if [animosity's] just not there. If it's fake, it doesn't work, it's embarrassing sometimes.

"I think people, and fans, still appreciate respect because that's what our sport has always been about. Right now, there isn't any bad blood. Whether that changes, you never know, but all I'm worried about right now is going out there and being the best I can be."

The 32-year-old hasn't forgotten that his rivalry with the man he dethroned, Max Holloway, started in similar fashion but, with two wins over the Hawaiian now in the bank, he's looking forward to a fresh challenge after retaining his title in their second bout last July.

"You've got to show respect where it's due, Max is not an easy fight for anybody," Volkanovski said.

"Not only is he tough and skillful, he's very durable and very fit so we knew we had to be ready to go into those later rounds we had to ready to take them out. We kew going into that rematch that it was going to be a tough fight so in camp you do whatever you can.

"It's not an easy camp, you've got to be ready and we definitely got ourselves ready. Any camp is hard, but preparing for someone like that makes it even harder, but how many times can you fight the same bloke?

"There's new challenges and, the fighter I am, I can just fight my fight against anybody. We'll fine-tune certain things, but I'm going show everyone why I'm the best in the world."

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After initially planning to make his first title defence at the later aborted UFC 251 card in Perth in June, Volkanovski is hoping his second defence will be on Aussie soil in 2021.

"It's definitely on my wish-list," he said.

"I think 2021 will be a better year than 2020 for the world. There will be obstacles, whether it's early in the year or mid-year, we'll see.

"I think, if the UFC are going to do an international event somewhere, it's [going to be] Fight Island or Australia and New Zealand.

"We're in with a chance and that's exactly what I want, I want to defend my belt on Australian soil as quickly as I can."