Vanessa Demopoulos says it's "interesting" that Islam Makhachev called out Alexander Volkanovski over Beneil Dariush at UFC 280
Vanessa Demopoulos provided her take on the recently-concluded UFC 280 pay-per-view card.
After the card's main event, Islam Makhachev and his teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov made it clear that the newly-crowned lightweight champion is eyeing a showdown against pound-for-pound (P4P) king Alexander Volkanovski.
While Demopoulos thinks a champion vs. champion matchup would undoubtedly be interesting to watch, she also pointed out that Beneil Dariush deserves a crack at UFC lightweight gold. During an interview with Sportskeeda MMA's James Lynch, the strawweight standout said:
"I thought it was interesting how they put [Alexander Volkanovski] straight into the cage to potentially fight next when Beneil Dariush was like sitting there, waiting. He's like, 'Dude I just won my fight against a very, very impressive grappler.' The cards were completely stacked against him, I felt like. Even in that opportunity and he showcases and shines. He's screaming for this title contention and they just were like, 'Yeah okay, come on Volkanovski. Here you go.'"
Watch our exclusive interview with Vanessa Demopoulos:
In the post-fight interview, Makhachev and his mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov called Volkanovski out, setting up a potential super fight for UFC 284 in Perth, Australia. Volkanovski promptly entered the cage for a face-off and accepted the challenge.
Unfortunately, that would mean Beneil Dariush might have to wait a little longer despite making a solid case for himself by extending his winning streak to eight with an impressive performance against Mateusz Gamrot.
Vanessa Demopoulos believes Sean O'Malley win at UFC 280 wasn't a robbery
Another huge talking point from UFC 280 is Sean O'Malley's controversial split decision win against Petr Yan.
Many believe that the former UFC bantamweight champ was robbed of the victory, but Vanessa Demopoulos thinks otherwise. Demopoulos admitted that she initially scored the fight for Yan, but added that she didn't have an issue with O'Malley taking the nod:
"You know what, I was watching the fight and I personally gave it to Yan initially," Vanessa Demopoulos said. "But when did they say that 'Sugar' Sean had won it, I was like, that's okay too. Like it wasn't so dominating – either person's performance – that I was surprised when the scorecards came out. And I felt like, afterwards, I really did take a look at the numbers and Sean O'Malley did win a lot more in the significant strikes."
Official stats for O'Malley's win over Yan. https://t.co/IW8jCZpfLR
Demopoulos also pointed out that the significant striking stats clearly favored O'Malley. With that in mind, she is of the belief that the win was deserved.