Alexander Volkanvoski believes his legacy is on the line when he
takes on reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight
champion Islam
Makhachev at
UFC 294.
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Ever since Volkanovski stepped up on 12 days’ notice to replace
Charles
Oliveira in the main event for UFC 294, there has been talk of
Volkanovski not having much to lose considering the last-minute
nature of the booking.
While “The Great” isn’t putting too much pressure on himself going
into the last-minute rematch with Makhachev, the Aussie is aware of
the impact of another” loss against the Dagestan native.
“This whole ‘nothing to lose’ type thing is silly,” Volkanovski
said during a
recent media scrum in Abu Dhabi. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s
still a lot of pressure on Islam and I understand that, but I mean
I have to take this rematch that I want so bad, this lightweight
title, you know. We talk about legacy, if I was to lose my legacy
takes a big hit, I don’t get another shot at him, I don’t get a
shot probably at the lightweight title. How much longer do I have?
We don’t know these things. So, there’s still definitely a lot to
lose for me.
“So I don’t want people acting like me doing this is a no-brainer,”
he added. “I guarantee you there are not many fighters that are
going to do this… You heard Islam say ‘no excuses’ and things
like this. One thing I want to say, put it this way, if the roles
were reversed this fight is not happening. I don’t care what anyone
says, he’s not fighting on 12 days’ notice, so he’s got to remember
that.”
Volkanovski and Makhachev first met inside the Octagon at UFC 284
back in February. This marked the Aussie’s first attempt at moving
up a division to capture a second belt. While fans are divided on
who won the highly competitive five-round affair, Makhachev secured
a unanimous decision victory. Since then, while Makhachev has been
out of action, “The Great” returned to featherweight to secure
another title defense, this time via Round 3 technical knockout
against Yair Rodrguez in July, a little more than three months ago.