
Israel Adesanya is backing his teammate Alexander Volkanovski all the way, even as he faces arguably his toughest career test for the second time.
Volkanovski, champion at 145 pounds, is moving up a weight class to fight UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev again on just 11 days notice in the main event of UFC 294 on Oct. 21. This came about after Makhachev’s original opponent Charles Oliveira was forced to withdraw from the matchup due to injury.