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UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev faces perhaps his toughest challenge yet on Saturday when he steps into the cage with featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski on short notice.
But Makhachev claims he’s not one to back down from a challenge.
And that, according to him, is what separates himself from heavyweight champ Jon Jones.
“This is what a UFC champion has to do,” Makhachev said of facing Volkanovski on short notice. “Like a real champion. If you’re a real champion you have to take the fight, it doesn’t matter how many days, who it’s going to be, not like your pound-for-pound champion [Jon Jones] when they gave him Chael Sonnen. When you’re a real champion, you have to fight.”
The Dagestani star was originally slated to face Charles Oliveiri in a rematch of their UFC 280 fight where Makhachev first won the title via arm triangle in the first round.
Instead, Oliveira pulled out of the fight after suffering a large cut in training just weeks prior to the fight date.
Now Makhachev will have another rematch. This time with Vokanovski, whom he successfully defended his title against at UFC 284 via unanimous decision.
Makhachev says that Volkanovski would not have taken a similar risk if he were in the same position.
“If the UFC told him bring your [featherweight] belt and come to Abu Dhabi in 11 days, he would never take [it],” he claims. “Because he don’t have any risks without his belt he comes [to fight me]. He just comes to make money. Everybody knows this.”
He then circled back to Jones, taking issue with heavyweight champ’s positioning in the pound-for-pound UFC rankings.
“They put [Jon Jones] No. 1 [pound-for-pound]. Who has he beat his last five fights?” Makhachev said. “He don’t have some names from top pound-for-pound rankings. I just want to say about the rankings, all these things, this is b******* and I am not following anymore.”
Clearly Makhachev doesn’t lack for confidence.
And given his recent dominance, it’s not hard to see why.