Getty Image / James Worsfold
After Islam Makhachev won the UFC Lightweight title against Charles Oliveira at UFC 280, he had only one name in mind for the first defense of his belt.
Makhachev announced in the cage after that win that he wanted to take on Alexander Volkanovski next and Volkanovsi even came into the cage to promote the potential fight.
Today the UFC made it official and announced that the champion vs champion matchup would be the main event for UFC 284 in from of Volkanovskiโs home country crowd in Perth, Australia.
UFC announces Makhachev-Volkanovski as UFC 284 main event
The LW belt & P4P status are ๐๐๐๐๐พ๐๐ผ๐๐๐ on the line ๐@MakhachevMMA takes on @AlexVolkanovski in the #UFC284 main event!
[ Feb. 11 | Get your tickets early at https://t.co/UocfFo1z8h ๐ ] pic.twitter.com/U1jZDEsnlw
โ UFC (@ufc) November 12, 2022
The fight will be just the second at lightweight in the UFC for Volkanovski. He made his UFC debut at lightweight, getting a win by 2nd round TKO over Yusuke Kasuya. Since then, he has racked up 11 consecutive wins at featherweight, including 4 consecutive defenses of the divisionโs title belt.
Makhachev is also riding an impressive winning streak heading into this title fight. Islam has put together an 11-fight win streak on the way to winning the belt and capped that streak off with an impressive submission finish over Charles Oliveira in the 2nd round of their fight last month.
While this wonโt be a popular decision with some who believe this is going to hold up 2 divisions, including 1 that just got a new champion, it could give both divisions a chance to sort themselves out.
The lightweight division is kind of jumbled right now with Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, and Dustin Poirier all having recently lost title fights. Beneil Dariush could be an interesting option, but might need one more win to get a title shot.
Meanwhile, Volkanovski hasnโt even been challenged at featherweight by anybody but Max Holloway and he now holds 3 wins over Holloway.
Whatever it may mean for their divisions, a clash between two of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC should be sure to deliver fireworks in February.