Out-of-category fight – Newspaper Kommersant No. 210 (7411) dated 11/14/2022

Islam Makhachev, who in October returned to Russia the champion title of the UFC, the main promotion in mixed martial arts (MMA) in lightweight (up to 70 kg), in three months will perform, perhaps, the most important fight of this kind next year. Makhachev will meet with the hugely popular Australian Alexander Volkanovski. And in this match, not only the champion title in a single category will be at stake, but also the status of simply the best fighter in the world, which belongs to Volkanovski.

Last weekend, the UFC, the main promotion in mixed martial arts, announced that it had sanctioned a fight between 31-year-old Russian Islam Makhachev and 34-year-old Australian Alexander Volkanovski. It will take place on February 11 as part of the UFC 284 tournament in Perth, that is, in the homeland of Volkanovski.

This fight is destined to cause a grandiose excitement. Formally, at stake in it will be the champion title in the category up to 70 kg, very special for Russia. It was in lightweight that the king of MMA, Khabib Nurmagomedov, who made a breakthrough in the last decade, became the first domestic champion in the UFC. Having won all his fights, Nurmagomedov ended his career in 2020 and began to help prepare his friend, another extraordinarily gifted Dagestan athlete, Islam Makhachev. Makhachev returned the lightweight championship title to Russia, spectacularly – with a choke in the second round – having dealt with the famous Brazilian Charles Oliveira at the end of October, and now he will meet with another owner of the same belt – however, in featherweight. For the sake of the duel with the Russian, Alexander Volkanovski decided to rise from the previous – up to 66 kg – category, in which he spent virtually his entire career in the UFC, with the exception of the debut match in the promotion. In it, in 2016, he defeated Yusuke Kasuya just as part of the lightweight.

In reality, the bet in this fight is much more expensive. In fact, there is no doubt that it will simply determine the strongest – regardless of weight category – fighter in the world. Now at the top of both the official UFC classification and most respected unofficial classifications, such as the one that forms ESPN, is Volkanovski, who suffered the only defeat a long time ago, even before moving to the UFC in 2013. Makhachev, for whom the victory over Oliveira was the 11th in a row in the main MMA promotion, is in third place. However, second-ranked Nigerian middleweight (up to 84 kg) representing New Zealand, Israel Adesanya, seriously spoiled his reputation last weekend, losing in the championship match to Brazilian Alex Pereira. So Makhachev does not see any alternative in the role of Volkanovski’s competitor in this nomination.

In the February fight, Islam Makhachev will have a solid, 10 cm, advantage in height over the low – 168 cm – Australian. But, even taking this factor into account, we can safely say that Makhachev has never faced such an inconvenient opponent.

The whole sports career of Alexander Volkanovski is extraordinary. In his youth, he was engaged in Greco-Roman wrestling – this is a normal, let’s say, background for MMA. But then there were continuous anomalies. At first, Volkanovski chose rugby, which is insanely popular in Australia, and even achieved good success in this form. At the same time, being a rugby player, he weighed under 100 kg. However, at 22, Volkanovski suddenly decided to lose weight and retrain as a mixed martial arts fighter, and it turned out that he seemed to be specially created according to his data for a cruel look.

The most curious thing is that, going through a sports transformation, Alexander Volkanovski focused not on wrestling, but on boxing. And such a strange move brought unexpected results. Thanks to his punching technique and power, as well as patience and ability to get out of difficult positions, Volkanovski has won many of his bright and sometimes valuable bonuses from promotion victories, including three over American superstar Max Holloway, forcing the UFC to place the Australian at the top of their most prestigious rating. And Holloway, by the way, is even slightly taller than Makhachev, who so far, despite the abundance of fights with difficult opponents in his biography, has definitely never crossed paths with a fighter who is so fast and feels so comfortable in the stance.

Alexey Dospekhov