The featherweight world champion Alexander Volkanovski will soon be going up in weight to challenge the lightweight king Islam Makhachev at UFC 284. Islam Makhachev is a dangerous Dagestani wrestler, trained by Khabib Nurmagomedov, and will have a size advantage in this bout. With all these factors, Australia’s Volkanovski says; don’t forget these when he wins.

In an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Alexander ‘The Great’ Volkanovski explained:

“The way people are talking. It’s funny, people quickly forget. At the end of the day, they’ll forget again when I get my hand raised … There’s a narrative right now … But there’s a lot of people who are going to doubt me, which I love, all that type of stuff, undersized, Dagestani wrestler, that’s good, but remember that. Don’t change the narrative when I get my hand raised.”

With all the talk of being an underdog in this fight, the featherweight king loves the position he’s in. Alexander Volkanovski said:

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“I like it. I’m all good with it. Especially moving up with the lightweight title and all that stuff, fighting someone like this. We want this for legacy. I never used to talk like this, I never used to talk about legacy fights. Now I’m all about it. Now I’m all for the big fights.”

Alexander Volkanovski on fighting for his legacy

Alexander Volkanovski used to never care about his legacy in MMA, but this is now changing with UFC 284 just around the corner. Volkanovski has impressive wins over Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes, Brian Ortega, and Max Holloway, among others, but says Islam Makhachev, and being undersized, might be the best one. In his interview with Ariel Helwani, he explained:

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“I love the underdog story. I love that being the underdog and people saying I’m undersized. It just adds to the story. It just adds to the victory. You talk about legacy, winning a belt, being the champ-champ, yeah that’s cool, but beating guys like Islam, while doing that, that’s different. How many people can say that they’ve moved up and won a title off an opponent like Islam.”

See the full interview below:

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Timothy Wheaton
Timothy Wheaton is a combat sports writer who covers MMA, Kickboxing, and Muay Thai. He has been an avid follower of these sports since 2005. Tim has even covered the UFC, GLORY Kickboxing, and Bellator in person at live events. With Low Kick MMA, Tim has contributed interviews, articles, and podcasts. Tim also works with a host of other media sites such as Calf Kick Sports, Sportskeeda MMA, MMA Sucka, Vecht Sport Info, Fighters First, and Beyond Kickboxing. Tim is is the authority on kickboxing and MMA journalist who has covered K-1, PRIDE FC, UFC, GLORY Kickboxing, Bellator, ONE Championship, and plenty more.