UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev will make his first 155-pound title defense against reigning UFC Featherweight Champion Alex Volkanovski, who earned the right to do “whatever he wants” after racking up a perfect 12-0 record under the UFC banner.
Their five-round affair will headline the upcoming UFC 284 pay-per-view (PPV) event, locked and loaded for Sat., Feb. 11, 2023 (Feb. 12 local time) inside RAC Arena in Perth, Western Australia, following the Yair Rodriguez vs. Josh Emmett interim featherweight title fight.
The promotion recently brought Makhachev and Volkanovski face-to-face for a special staredown opportunity in Sydney and as expected, Makhachev proved to be the much larger opponent — but don’t expect the Aussie to panic when things go south.
Check out reactions from both fighters:
Champ vs Champ! @MAKHACHEVMMA and @AlexVolkanovski react to their face off in Sydney before #UFC284 next month! pic.twitter.com/XQfh4eAsXD
— UFC_AUSNZ (@UFC_AUSNZ) January 22, 2023
“We know he is a great wrestler and all that type of stuff, but we’ve shown that I’ve got that dog in me, that never-give-up attitude and all that type of stuff,” Volkanovski told ESPN. “Right now preparations have been good, we’ve been getting stuck into it, preparing [a long while] for exactly what we know he is going to want to do.”
“So it is reasonably easy to prepare for, it’s hard work, but game-planning and all that type of stuff has been reasonably easy,” Volkanovski continued. “But that just adds to that whole story, people forgetting that [escapes against Ortega], forgetting who I am and what I’ve accomplished, and putting him where he is, that just makes my win even bigger. That’s what I love about it.”
To see who else is fighting at UFC 284 click here.