Alexander Volkanovski’s coach said that Makhachev towering Volkanovski will not be a problem. He explained how Volk’s short build gives opponents a hard time in reading his movements.
Despite having a poor undercard, UFC 284 is highly anticipated by fans around the world. The event will be headlined by Islam Makhachev who will put his lightweight belt on the line against featherweight champion and pound-for-pound king Alexander Volkanovski.
Islam Makhachev quickly defeated Charles Oliveira, who cleared out top contenders in the lightweight division. Meanwhile, Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski is undefeated since 2013 and currently on 22 win streak.
Many fans, including Makhachev himself, are doubting Volkanovski due to his height which plays a big role in combat sports. He stands at 5ft 6in while Makhachev is at 5ft 10in, resulting in a significant reach difference. Not to mention that Volkanovski is moving up to the lightweight division for the first time in the UFC.
Makhachev and Volkanovski had a face off recently which shows their size gap. Fans started to bring up this topic again, saying how Volkanovski will have a very hard time. However, his coach Joe Lopez doesn’t worry too much about their size difference.
During his appearance in the Submission Radio podcast, Lopez said how Volkanovski has been easily defeating his sparring opponents who were way larger than him. Most of his opponents in the featherweight division are also bigger.
“I’ve been around Alex from day one so I’ve got to see him spar all different varieties of people and I’ve seen coaches say to their fighters as they’re trying to do this, do that, you know, and they don’t realize what it’s like when Alex is standing in front of you.”
“He’s a different beast you don’t know whether he’s moving left or he’s moving right, and it really takes your game plan out. And then the other thing is, Alex has always been strong. I mean, super, super strong.” Lopez explained.
“The funny thing is when we’re getting in fight week when people are getting, most fighters are getting weaker and depleted, he actually gets stronger for some reason. I think he just gets into his head that it’s game time.”