Alexander Volkanovski is challenging Islam Makhachev for the second time.
The first time he went five rounds with the reigning lightweight champion, the current 145-pound titleholder was scarfing down more than 4,000 calories per day. That’s because “The Great” was enduring the rigors of a full training camp for UFC 284 in Perth.
For UFC 294 on Oct. 21 in Abu Dhabi, he’ll step in with less than two weeks’ notice — and more than 25 pounds of excess weight to lose.
“Pretty heavy,” Volkanovski revealed on his YouTube blog. “I knew that was water, though. I’d get rid of that straight away, which was true because Tuesday, when I got the phone call, [my manager] Ash rings me up, asks me about my weight. I sort of laughed at the start, thinking, ‘Ooh… just yesterday I was 82.’ But I was already 79 [kilos]. So it just shows you how much I bloat. Literally just from me dieting a bit and training a few times, I was at 79 [kilos]. Literally on the Wednesday morning, was… 78 [kilos] or something like that. Thursday, last couple of days, 77 [kilos]. I’m even 76 [kilos] today.”
Like Makhachev, who cuts a tremendous amount of weight to make the 155-pound limit, the 35 year-old Volkanovski will spend most of UFC 294 fight week obsessing over the scale. Just don’t expect the Dagestani bruiser to return the favor if the roles are ever reversed.
“It just depends on the weight,” Volkanovski said during the UFC 294 media day (watch it here). “The day before I got the phone call my weight was pretty heavy. I was already way too heavy. I had a one day head start before I had the call because I didn’t like where my weight was, so I lost a couple of kilos even before I got that phone call. The last thing I wanna do is come here and not make weight.”
A 181-pound featherweight? Might be time to revisit this controversial topic.
The 26-2 Volkanovski has never missed weight in 14 fights under the UFC banner and is unlikely to start at Friday’s weigh ins. How the dramatic weight loss affects his performance (if at all) remains to be seen.
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