Islam Makhachev spoiled Alexander Volkanovski's hopes of becoming double-champ as he outpointed the Australian to defend his lightweight belt at UFC 284.
Featherweight champion Volkanovski was moving up to lightweight for the first time in his UFC career by facing the division's undisputed champion Makhachev. The Russian won the 155lb belt when he tapped out Charles Oliveira last October in Abu Dhabi, whilst Volkanovski has held the featherweight title since 2019.
The size difference was inevitable from the opening bell as they exchanged strikes on the feet in a tense beginning. Makhachev came out on top in the first big exchange of the fight as Volkanovski got reckless with his punches and was briefly dropped by a left hook from the Russian. Makhachev secured back control and was attempting to secure a face crank submission, but Volkanovski did well to defend and see out the round.
Volkanovski appeared to hurt Makhachev with a great punch as the Russian took him down, but his takedown defence continued to hold up as he got straight back to his feet. Makhachev was proving to be no slack on the feet and started to find his flow as he landed a great body shot that backed up Volkanovski against the fence.
Makhachev was pulling away after two rounds but Volkanovski was bruising up the legs of the champion with some great kicks whilst going to the body as well. Makhachev looked to take his rival down after landing some good knees in the clinch but Volanovski defended again. The featherweight champion had a great flurry at the end of the third round as it was neck and neck heading into the championship rounds.
Volkanovski was struggling to get out of a body triangle for most of the fourth round as he trash-talked his rival whilst they exchanged punches on the ground. Makhachev landed a great knee at the start of the final round that halted the forward pressure of Volkanovski. Makhachev was dropped by a right hand with a minute left of the fight and Volkanovski finished the fight on top landing some big punches, but the judges saw it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 in Makhachev's favour after the final bell.
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"This was such a hard opponent, I needed a tough fight as I had to improve," Makhachev said after the fight. "I thought he was going to be easy on the ground, but this guy improved a lot. I showed why I'm number one, you like or you don't like I am the best fighter in the world right now."
"Congrats to Islam, he didn't respect my grappling but maybe I didn't respect his striking so fair play to him. Nothing wrong with challenging yourselves, you do it like this and it only makes you stronger. I came up short tonight but Islam is a great fighter, maybe we will do it again," Volkanovski said.
In the co-main event, Yair Rodriguez solidified his status as the second-best featherweight in the world by tapping out Josh Emmett to win the division's interim title. Top prospects Jack Della Madallena and Justin Tafa picked up finishes on the main card, whilst a light-heavyweight clash between Jimmy Crute and Alonzo Menifield ended in a majority draw.
