Daniel Cormier can understand why Alexander Volkanovski is still the No. 1 pound-for-pound after UFC 284.
Featherweight champion Volkanovski (25-2 MMA, 12-1 UFC) lost a unanimous decision to lightweight champ Islam Makhachev (24-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC 284 headliner in Perth, Australia.
Although Volkanovski lost, he kept his top spot in the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings. Cormier didn’t say whether or not he agrees but justified it based on Volkanovski proving that he can hang with Makhachev.
“I also said on ‘SportsCenter’ after the fight, I said, ‘Hey, there’s a world in which, at the end of this, Volkanovski could still be the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world,'” Cormier said on his ESPN show “DC & RC” with Ryan Clark.
“Because pound-for-pound says, ‘Does your fighting style translate between weight classes?’ It showed on Saturday that his (Volkanovski’s) fighting style does translate between weight classes. The new rankings come out and guess who’s still No. 1 pound-for-pound? Alexander Volkanovski even though he lost.”
Volkanovski was credited for surpassing expectations when he fended off Makhachev’s grappling for the most part, but Cormier insists there wasn’t that much of a size difference.
“In theory, he’s 10 pounds heavier, starting essentially, but only for – he’s 10 pounds heavier only for outside of fight camp or only on weigh-in day,” Cormier said. “Because it’s not like Islam Makhachev weighed more than Alexander Volkanovski on fight night. I wish we had the numbers on the scale because they only weigh 155 for that short period of time that they step on that scale. Islam can’t get back to his max number in 24 hours, neither can Volkanovski. So you’ve got to imagine they were pretty similar on fight night.”
He continued, “Islam was probably gonna be about 175 max. That’s about 20 pounds. Volkanovski looked huge in there, bro. He’s so thick.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 284.
