Islam Makhachev’s first lightweight title defense was against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. The two top-ranked pound-for-pound fighters put on a thrilling show at UFC 284 and wowed the Australian crowd with an intense matchup.
The tightly contested fight went the lightweight champion’s way but Volkanovski’s performance has prompted fans to demand a rematch and the two fighters are in agreement too. The two discussed it backstage immediately after their fight and ‘Volk’ took to Twitter to make his rematch call-out official too.
However, UFC president Dana White is not in favor of pitting the two champions against each other anytime soon. He spoke at the UFC Vegas 70 post-fight press conference and voiced his belief that contenders from their respective divisions should get a title shot first.
White stated that interim featherweight champion Yair Rodriguez will face Volkanovski first. He also mentioned that Islam Makhachev will take on a challenger from the lightweight division and then a rematch against the P4P king.
Dana White said:
“I mean, listen, I don’t know. We didn’t make any fights yet. There are a lot of different things that play out in making these fights, you know. Timing, injuries, personal stuff, whatever it might be.”
“But yeah, to me, the fight that makes sense is to make Yair versus Volkanovski, Islam versus somebody whenever that happens. And then you do the rematch.”
Check out his comments on Twitter below:
Daniel Cormier does not endorse an immediate rematch between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski
Islam Makhachev’s former teammate Daniel Cormier shared Dana White’s stance on the rematch.
The former double champion spoke on the DC & RC Show and stated that Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski both need to fight in their division again before rematching. He mentioned potential challengers and the interim featherweight champion:
“Islam’s got work to do in his own weight class and so does Alexander Volkanovski. Volkanovski owes it to Yair Rodriguez to go and give him an opportunity to try to become the undisputed champion of the world.”
“And I don’t know if it’s fair to Beneil Dariush if he beats Charles Oliveira to not get his chance to fight for the lightweight championship of the world.”
‘DC’ also pointed out the risks of superfights across divisions:
“This is the danger in superfights: You get a close superfight, [and] people are clamoring to see it again. When, in reality, we have two divisions that need the champions back in order to give us a little clarity.”
Check out Cormier’s full comments on YouTube: