Alexander Volkanovski dismisses narrative of UFC 284 being under promoted
Alexander Volkanovski does not see eye to eye with Islam Makhachev regarding the UFC's promotional efforts towards their upcoming super fight at UFC 284. Unlike his next opponent, 'The Great' believes there is more than enough hype around the event in Perth.
Makhachev recently slammed Dana White and the UFC for their apparent lack of promotion for his upcoming title defense against Volkanovski this weekend. The lightweight champion was of the opinion that more steps could have been taken to build up the fight. However, Volkanovski seems to disagree.
Islam Makhachev isn't feeling the promotional hype around his champ-vs-champ fight.
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In a recent interview with Brett Okamoto of ESPN MMA, Alexander Volkanovski spoke about the buzz around this highly anticipated super fight in Australia:
"There's enough buzz. You know obviously, some people are saying that [there isn't] but I don't believe that. We're in Australia, we're buzzing. I know it's massive here. I don't know what it's like in Dagestan or whatever, but we're buzzing."
The featherweight champion further detailed how fans were struggling to buy tickets due to the high demand:
"We sold it out in seconds. People are struggling to get tickets like everyone's got a combination and got flights and couldn't even get a ticket. It's buzzing over here."
Watch the full interview below:
Alexander Volkanovski on the significance of his fight against Islam Makhachev
Alexander Volkanovski will undoubtedly face the biggest test of his professional career when he goes up against Islam Makhachev this weekend. The reigning featherweight champion will be gunning for the lightweight title on home turf in the main event of UFC 284.
Makhachev is justifiably going into fight day as the betting favorite, owing to his superior grappling skills and significant size and weight advantage. The 31-year-old captured the lightweight title after dominantly submitting Charles Oliveira at UFC 280. He called out Volkanovski at the same event and the two top-ranked pound-for-pound fighters were booked to face off on February 12.
In the same interview with Brett Okamoto, 'The Great' was asked how important this fight was to him and how historic a win would be, to which he replied:
"This was already in the history books, number one vs. number two pound-for-pound... I don't think there have been many fights like this...The fact that one's an underdog and I'm gonna go there and get my hand raised... This is going to be the defining year of my legacy and it starts off this weekend."
Alexander Volkanovski is riding an incredible 22-fight win streak. He will look to snap Makhachev's 11-fight win streak to become the fifth simultaneous two-division champion in UFC history.