OFFICIAL: Alexander Volkanovski, The Featherweight Champion, will be the backup fighter for the lightweight title fight at UFC 280
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Volkanovski will be the backup fighter fr the title bout between Oliveira and Makhachev
After months of campaigning Alexander Volkanovski has finally gotten his wish and is traveling to Abu Dhabi. The featherweight champion has received his wish and will be the backup fighter for the lightweight title bout at UFC 280.
Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev will face off for the lightweight UFC title on the 22nd of October, at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Since his last fight against Max Holloway, Volk has been relentlessly petitioning Dana White on Twitter to be added to the card as a backup fighter.
It was after his most recent win against Max Holloway that Volk clearly expressed his plans to move up a weight class to secure the coveted Double Champ status. However, a broken hand he suffered during the fight, made it seem likely that he’d never be medically cleared.
Now that he has, Volk is happy for the world to know that he too will be a part of the festivities at Abu Dhabi. “I’m excited for this one, just purely because of where I’m at right now, you know I’m a whole different beast, I’ve evolved so much and at least I get to go for that double world champ status, that’s what I want”, said Volkanovski in a video he released alongside the official announcement.
Previously Volk had been closely involved in all the developments of the Makhachev-Oliveira fight. He responded to a tweet by Khabib Nurmagomedov predicting Oliveira wouldn’t show up promising that he [Volk] certainly would. More recently, last week he responded to Makhachev expressing doubt over Oliveira’s arrival 2 weeks removed from the event.
How will Alexander Volkanovski fare in the Lightweight Division?
While Volkanovski is arguably one of the most talented fighters in all of the UFC today, it cannot be ignored that Lightweight is a whole different beast. Removing the few top-ranked veterans, the lower half of the rankings is a pool of sharks, representing the new generation of MMA.
Volkanovski’s coach, Eugene Bareman has said in a prior interview that he would prefer seeing Volk going up against Oliveira in order to gain double champ status. While he feels the fight would be tough, he believes his student can make it through the fight with his hand raised.
Makhachev on the other hand has been criticized by coach Bareman for not having the potential to be as exciting of a champ as Oliveira. He however does see his student walking out victorious in a fight between the two.
This will be the first time the world’s #1 ranked fighter will be a backup for a championship fight.
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Jerin Mathew
(713 Articles Published)