The much-awaited pound-for-pound fight between the lightweight champion Islam Makhchev and the featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski took place on Sunday, February, 12 in the main event of UFC 284. Makhachev denied Volkanovski’s dream to become the latest UFC champ-champ.
Makhachev defeated Volkanovski in an epic five-round battle via unanimous decision. His size turned out to be one of his key advantages. His striking more often did visible damage in exchanges, and his grappling at times gave Volkanovski fits. In the end, the judges all gave the lightweight champion the fight via scores of 48-47 twice and 49-46. Meanwhile, during the fight, Volkanovski was heard shouting: ‘Let’s f***ing go’ as he sent Makhachev stumbling backward with a right hand.
I’ll be back at lightweight but…: Alexander Volkanovski
Speaking after the fight, Volkanovski said, “A lot of people will be happy with that because they didn’t give me a chance but I gave myself a chance. I knew he was really good but that I’d prepared properly. It was a fun fight and maybe I could have capitalised on some positions a bit more. He didn’t respect my wrestling and grappling but maybe I didn’t respect his striking enough either. I’ll be back at lightweight but for now congrats to Yair and now we build up a big featherweight fight.”
While the champion, who will surely expect an easier second title defense, whoever he faces, said, “You like or you don’t like, I am best fighter in the world right now. It was a very good fight, many things happened before the fight but I needed a tough fight to improve. I thought it was going to be easy on the ground but this guy improved a lot. I want a real contender next.”
As of now, Makhachev doesn’t have a next opponent in mind or a return date, but with the champion taking part in Ramadan, we can probably expect him in July or August.
Here’s how the fans reacted:
Volk got robbed
— Hexpro2121 (@hexpro2121) February 12, 2023
Dudes were saying islam and khabib would beat Khamzat ????
— Ravi Varma (@RaviVar97469545) February 12, 2023
Step in the octagon and show us how not to get beat up by volk
— King spartan (@king__spartan) February 12, 2023
Robbery
— TapouT4UFC (@pawelkmma) February 12, 2023
Man beat up a former p4p #1
— ???????? ?? ? (@UTD014) February 12, 2023
He'll learn to respect the great Volkanovski
— Zino Benson (@Zino08) February 12, 2023
Short guy did this to him
— MMA ANALyst Abu ? (@mohan_abhay) February 12, 2023
He smashed him in his back yard… thought Islam was the boxer with his perfect timing.. Was an Easy fight for islam.
— Adam Pat (@lfckingoffall) February 12, 2023
