Everybody has been on Islam Makhachev’s case since his win against Alexander Volkanovski. The two P4P greats competed at UFC 284, where Islam successfully defended his lightweight title. He won the 5-round contest via unanimous decision, beating Volk in his home country.
However, since then there’s been nothing but controversy. A number of fans and MMA figures feel that Volkanovski won or at the very least deserves a rematch.
Islam has also been accused of using an IV to rehydrate before the match.
At the same time, Volkanovski says that Islam had a weight advantage over him. He talked to Ariel Helwani and said that the Russian weighed about ten pounds more than him. He admittedly took a dig at Islam, saying that the IV helped him recover the weight.
He said that Islam weighed around “80 [or] 81 kilograms,” or “178 or 180 [lbs]”.
“I ended up weighing myself. I think I was like 76 [or] 77 kilograms so maybe 170lbs or just under… I’ve heard he gets up to 180 lbs, like 83 kilograms closely.”
“You fill up pretty quick on the IV’s and stuff like that… Maybe that’s a little shot at him.”
Islam was on a Russian TV talk show, where he shut those claims down. He said that he didn’t have enough time to get to the weight that Volkanovski mentioned.
” I was no bigger than Volkanovski, because I had no time to gain physical strength and weight. I didn’t have time to recover and I think in the fight, we weighed about the same.”
Islam also fired back at Volk, accusing him of making excuses since he was a difficult opponent. He said that the fans loved their outing and so did the UFC. That’s all that matters to him.
“I completed the main task and maybe someone didn’t like that the fight was hard. Although MMA fans liked this very much — we were given a bonus.”