Alexander Volkanovski has nothing but respect for Islam Makhachev.
In 2023, Volkanovski challenged Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 284. Though Volkanovski lost a decision that night, the fight won Fight of the Year and is widely regarded as one of the best fights of all time for its technical mastery. Since then, both men have routinely complimented each other for bringing out the best in themselves, with Makhachev crediting Volkanovski as one of his toughest fights.
Speaking with Kris Fade recently, Volkanovski echoed those sentiments and explained why he is so fond of their first fight, despite losing.
“I’ve heard him mention that, and I’ve mentioned it,” Volkanovski said. “I loved that first fight so much because of — like, it’s weird, because I’m saying I love it as if it was easy. No, it wasn’t easy. What I loved about it was, no one had ever taken me that far when it comes to techniques.
“Takedown defense is my thing. I’m pretty hard to hold down. I’ve got a lot of my own cool little tricks. A lot of times I don’t ever get to use all of them. So I might have an answer — someone does something great, and I’ll have an answer; we might only go two or three layers deep, but he took me three, four layers deep. He’d have a counter to this, then I would go there, and he would go there.
“So just for us to have such a technical fight — which I’m telling you, further down the track, people can study that and look deep into it, and be like, ‘Well, look at this, look at that!’ If they really start studying some of that stuff, they can see some magic techniques in there, and fundamentals. The understanding of the game that we both had is something that it’s going to be hard to get two athletes with that type of knowledge putting it all on the line like we did.
“So I think that’s why we both really appreciated what we got out of each other. And again, I’ve got nothing but respect for him.”
Makhachev and Volkanovski rematched in October of 2023, a short-notice fight at UFC 294 that Makhachev won by first-round knockout. But Volkanovski doesn’t begrudge Makhachev at all, and says he and his rival are planning to spend some time together in Dagestan soon.
“We are [going to Dagestan],” Volkanovski said. “It won’t be two or three years. I was like, ‘Maybe a few days,’ and he said, ‘That’s not long enough. Two-three weeks. Let’s go two-three weeks.’ So we’ll definitely do that. Obviously we’ll get some training in; we’ll do the cooking stuff, but even hunting. He does horseback hunting. Hunting on horseback. And I’m just like, wow!
“We’ve done some cooking together. I love all that stuff. I love the content that we can get, and that’s just next level. So I can’t wait to go and do that with him.”