Islam Makhachev, the champion of the lightweight division in the UFC, recently successfully defended his championship. In the main event of UFC 284, he won a unanimous decision over Alexander Volkanovski, the current featherweight champion. After the fight, many people had the impression that Volkanovski had triumphed, and they immediately began calling for a rematch to take place. After the game, a member of Volkanovski’s team said that Makhachev had used an IV to illicitly get better.
Even if there was no evidence found, a rematch between these two champs seems like it would be much more exciting now. Both fighters appear to be interested in the bout, but there are still some unresolved issues that need to be addressed before it can go through. For example, Volkanovski is scheduled to defend his 145-pound belt against Yair Rodriguez in his next fight. Makhachev, on the other hand, is willing to engage in a rematch on the condition that the UFC provides its approval. During a recent interview with Team Dagestan on YouTube, he talked about this.
According to the translation of what he said, “we agreed with Volkanovski after the fight, he asked if we could make a rematch I answered of course.
”If UFC wants it then no problem because it’s all decided by the UFC, as they want, so be it. Fighters cannot assign fights to each other without the consent of the management.”
The future goals of Islam Makhachev include winning titles in two different divisions. Makhachev fought Volkanovski for his lightweight title at UFC 284. However, only the featherweight champion could have become a dual champion. It was never possible for Makhachev to win the featherweight championship at that time. Yet, he would gladly take advantage of the opportunity to hold two belts at the same time if it were presented to him at this time.
“100% I would be interested. Even now if the UFC wants to do this and offer me the next fight in a different weight category I will discuss with the team of course but I 100% agree,” he said.
“I want to try myself in a different weight category because the double champion will remain in history for a long time.”
While he competes in the lightweight division, Makhachev is a huge man. It is quite likely that if he were to participate in another weight class, it would be at the welterweight level; hence, the thought of the rematch with Volkanovski taking place at 145 pounds does not appear to be a possibility. Many people believe that Makhachev still has more work to do at 155 pounds before he can start bouncing around.
