As the curtain closed on UFC 280, the final words of Daniel Cormier remained with everyone. “Volkanovski is right here” and with that simple phrase, UFC 284 was all but booked for Perth, Australia.
Islam Makhachev took the long road to the UFC title, after 10 wins in a row, he was given a title shot against Charles Oliveira who was on a massive run of wins himself. As Makhachev finished Oliveira in the second round at UFC 280, it seemed pretty clear who would be next.
Despite rumours that Charles Oliveira was offered an immediate rematch, it never came to fruition. Beneil Dariush was a possibility, but the UFC seem keen to match him up with Oliveira and top guys such as Poirier, Gaethje and Chandler all seem to be fighting each other. So Volkanovski was the obvious choice for the time frame that was given.
After Volkanovski put on a dominant performance over Max Holloway at UFC 276, the world was asking “what’s next?” There was no obvious number 1 contender in the division, so Volk decided to do something about it. Alexander Volkanovski became the backup for the UFC 280 main event and weighed in on the day at 155 pounds in search of a new challenge.
Volk all but cleared featherweight by beating Max Holloway 3x, The Korean Zombie and Bryan Ortega. For Volk, clearing out this division means he wants new challenges at lightweight and Islam Makhachev definitely is a challenge.
Taking a look back at featherweight, the co-main event ties into the Makhachev-Volkanovski drama with Josh Emmett and Yair Rodriguez facing off for the interim featherweight title. The winner of that will be next in line for Volkanovski when he returns to his original weight class, win or lose to Islam Makhachev.
Either way, tune into UFC 284 with the Against The Fence guys at 3 am on Sunday morning for a watch-along, it’s sure to be one to remember!
Commentaires