Alexander
Volkanovski just may get his rematch with Islam
Makhachev before the end of the year.
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While Charles
Oliveira would seem to be the No. 1 contender in waiting
following his impressive victory over Beneil
Dariush at UFC 289, the Brazilian recently said he would prefer
to face the reigning lightweight champion in November or December.
That doesn’t align with the UFC’s plans for Makhachev, which
include a title defense at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi this October.
After defeating Yair
Rodriguez via third-round TKO in the UFC 290 headliner on
Saturday night, Volkanovski revealed that he would need surgery on
his arm. However, he claims that wouldn’t necessarily prevent him
from stepping in against Makhachev.
“It makes it a lot better opportunity for me to step in there,”
Volkanovski said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I’m
not ruling that out. It’s funny. These people want extra time off
and here I am telling you I’m going to get surgery and I’ll
probably going to turn out there in October. That’s what I’m
showing you.”
Some observers thought that Volkanovski deserved the nod when he
faced Makhachev at UFC 284, but ultimately the Dagestani emerged
with a unanimous decision triumph this past February. The City
Kickboxing representative is confident he can avenge that defeat,
though he admits it won’t be easy to best the reigning lightweight
king.
“I’d be lying to say I’ll just walk through him and do this and do
that,” Volkanovski said. “It’s going to be another highly contested
battle, but I guarantee I get my hand raised. I’m going to
capitalize on a lot more things. It is two tough guys going at it.
They’ve done five rounds and there’s a good chance you might see
another five rounds of it. I’d love to get a finish. We’re both
that good that it might be another tougher fight. But I’m looking
forward, again.”
It’s important for Volkanovski to have opponents that motivate him,
and Makhachev fits that bill.
“It’s a challenge that excites me so that’s obviously why I want
it,” he said. “You talk about I don’t need to be motivated but it’s
exciting when I can have guys like that in front of me. That camp
that I had, I did like 14 weeks. It’s so good to have someone like
that in front of you. You ask how do you get better? It’s things
like that, that get you better. Certain opponents in front of you
that get you better. I told myself where you’re at now is not good
enough.
“In that fight, he got his hand raised. Do I believe I won? Yeah I
do, but he got his hand raised so I need to work on these things.
I’m going to evolve again, and these lightweights and
featherweights aren’t going to stand a chance.”
UFC president Dana White is open to the possibility of a
Makhachev-Volkanovski rematch, provided the featherweight champion
is healthy by October.
“Yeah, I don’t know, let’s see how his surgery goes and what
happens,” White said. “He’s at one of those places in his career
that whatever he wants to do, what are you going to say? This guy
has literally proven himself a million times. Many people believe
he won the Islam fight. Whatever he wants to do, we’ll probably
roll with it.”