UFC 284 Preview (Volkanovski vs. Makhachev)
The UFC will be invading the RAC Arena in Perth, Australia on Saturday, February 11th for UFC 284. The event will feature two title fights with the main event seeing a battle for the lightweight title between champion Islam Makhachev against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Makhachev won the title in his last fight at UFC 280 in October. He won via a second-round submission over Charles Oliveira to give him his 11th straight victory, and his first title. The newly crowned lightweight champion is on the second longest current winning streak in the UFC behind his opponent Volkanovski. The two will settle the debate on Saturday to see who the pound for pound greatest fighter in the world really is.
The Russian fighter has spoken out more about his thoughts on the UFC, Dana White, and the promotion of the fight more so than his opponent. “I see that it is not such big promotion,” Makhachev said. “Dana White himself has some problems. He does not pay much attention to this fight. Here in Perth, everyone knows about the fight and is looking forward to it. And in terms of pay-per-view, yes, more could have been done. I only saw Volkanovski once, in Sydney. A tour could be organized around the world. A (news) conference could be held in America.”
Despite his thoughts about the promotion of the fight, the champion has plans on making a statement the night he defends the title. “Honestly, I want to knock him out, because everybody says [that] Islam a grappler or wrestler, but I want to show people my striking,” Makhachev said. “He is a short guy, and I really believe I can knock him out.”
The champion goes on to address his opponent’s confidence heading into the fight. “This is not his area,” Makhachev said. “I’m from other division. This is not the same power. It’s not the same, and he’s going to understand this, but he wants to try because he’s not losing. If he loses, what is he going to lose? Just belt with him, but he wants to try to jump and make some good money, make some pay-per-view money, but this is not his area.”
As far as who Makhachev wants to fight next? “Honestly, I want to fight [Beneil] Dariush. I hope he wins his next fight. Because he has a good win streak. It’s gonna be a big match,” he said.
There have been talks about Makhachev moving up to welterweight after several title defenses, but despite the size difference he will have his hands full with Volkanovski. His Australian opponent will have the advantage of fighting in his home country as the underdog which will most certainly create a frenzied Australian crowd.
Volkanovski has only fought at lightweight in the UFC once and that was in his debut back in 2016. He is currently on a 22-fight winning streak with 12 of those wins coming in the UFC. He has not lost a fight since 2013. As a featherweight champion he has defended the belt four times and now has the chance to become the UFC’s fifth two-weight world champion in history.
The Australian native believes he is being overlooked heading into this fight. "Everyone is saying that [this fight] 'it's different, it's different,' but I'm different," Volkanovski told ESPN. "People are going to say this and say that, he's a great fighter and I give him a lot of props. But I'm not just your ordinary fighter that is going to do what everyone else does, I do things differently, I prepare differently and that's going to be the difference, people are really going to see that fight time anyway.”
Volkanovski went on to say, "Again, we know he is a great wrestler and all that type of stuff, but we've shown that I've got that dog in me, that never-give-up attitude and all that type of stuff. Right now preparations have been good, we've been getting stuck into it, preparing [a long while] for exactly what we know he is going to want to do.
"So it is reasonably easy to prepare for, it's hard work, but game-planning and all that type of stuff has been reasonably easy. But that just adds to that whole story, people forgetting that [escapes against Ortega], forgetting who I am and what I've accomplished, and putting him where he is, that just makes my win even bigger. That's what I love about it."
Since his last fight, a unanimous decision victory over featherweight great Max Holloway, Volkanovski has largely been considered the pound for pound best fighter in the world. He has a chance to prove he is not only the pound for pound great, but one of the best fighters in UFC history at any weight class. He will be fighting in front of his fans in a risk-free fight where he is chasing a second belt. Will the Australian fans be an advantage or detriment to the 34-year-old? His last fight in Australia was a second round TKO victory over Jeremy Kennedy at UFC 221 in 2016.
The co-main event of the evening will be for the interim featherweight title between #2 Yair Rodriguez and #5 Josh Emmett.
Rodriguez is coming off a first round TKO over former title challenger Brian Ortega, who suffered a shoulder injury leaving him unable to fight in the second round. The Mexican fighter is 3-1-1 in his last five fights but now has the chance to solidify a shot at the featherweight title, which many critics have predicted since his young debut back in 2014.
The 30-year-old is confident he will finish the fight on Saturday. “Josh Emmett is explosive, aggressive, strong, but I think I have better tools. If I can use my abilities as I normally do, I visualize myself getting a knockout,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez has three of the most memorable knockouts in featherweight history, so the ability to finish Emmett will be present. He continued, “It’s been a successful career, it’s been a great journey. I’m always going to keep on pushing forward to become a champion.”
Aside from Ortega, Rodriguez has key victories over Jeremy Stephens, Chan Sung Jung, B.J. Penn, Alex Caceres and Dan Hooker. A win on Saturday will be the biggest of his career and depending on the result of the main event, could lead to a fantastic featherweight showdown this Summer.
Emmett is riding a five-fight winning streak having most recently the defeated Calvin Kattar by split decision last June. The 37-year-old has only lost twice in his career, both in the UFC and overall he is 18-2 and 9-2 in the UFC.
The Phoenix native acknowledges that he is fighting for a title on Saturday, but has bigger plans should he win. “I’m not going to throw it on the ground, but in my eyes, there’s only one featherweight champion, and that’s Alexander Volkanovski,” Emmett said. “So, this is more like a No. 1 contender belt. It also gives me feedback on how good I am and leads me in the right direction to where I want to go. But, I have to get through Yair first in order to do so. So, I’m solely focused on him at the moment.”
Emmett is aware of Rodriguez’s capabilities, but believes he will be the better prepared fighter on Saturday. “He’s a great fighter,” Emmett said. “He’s ranked No. 2 for a reason. He’s one of the best in the world also. I focus on myself and even though I have training partners that can’t emulate who I’m fighting to the T because everyone’s unique in their own. And he is so dynamic, and elusive, and explosive, and crafty – you don’t know what he’s going to throw at you.
“But I’ve watched so much film on him. … I’ve prepared to the best of my ability and I’m just going to go in there and execute my gameplan, and capitalize on things that I don’t think he’ll be able to correct in that 10-week camp, and I’m going to beat him to the punch.”
Aside from Kattar, Emmett has key victories over Dan Ige, Shane Burgos, Mirsad Bektic, Michael Johnson and Ricardo Lamas. Just like Rodriguez, a victory for the interim belt would be the biggest of his career and would set him up for a blockbuster fight with Volkanovski. Both Emmett and Rodriguez can limit the amount of the time either would have to wait for a title shot with a devastating finish over one or the other on Saturday.
The rest of the main card:
Welterweight - Jack Della Maddalena vs. Randy Brown
Heavyweight - Justin Tafa vs. Parker Porter
Light Heavyweight - #12 Jimmy Crute vs. Alonzo Menifield
ESPN + Prelims:
Light Heavyweight - Tyson Pedro vs. Modestas Bukauskas
Featherweight - Joshua Culibao vs. Melsik Baghdasaryan
Flyweight - Shannon Ross vs. Kleydson Rodrigues
Lightweight - Jamie Mullarkey vs. Francisco Prado
ESPN+/ UFC Fight Pass Early Prelims:
Featherweight - Jack Jenkins vs. Don Shainis
Women's Strawweight - Loma Lookboonmee vs. Elise Reed
Featherweight - Shane Young vs. Blake Bilder
Lightweight - Zubaira Tukhugov vs. Elves Brenner
