When Makhachev won the title, submitting Oliveira in the second round, Volkanovski was sitting in the front row, and quickly entered the Octagon to congratulate Makhachev and accept his challenge when the new king of the lightweight division declared he wanted to face the featherweight champ in Australia next.
Unbeaten in his last 11 fights and having earned finishes in each of his last five victories, Makhachev has been every bit as good as his coaches and teammates long said he was while he waited for his time to chase down the lightweight title to come around. He’s a nightmare matchup for anyone and everyone, but that’s precisely why Volkanovski wanted this challenge, and he’s felt himself level up again as he’s prepared for his opportunity to share the cage with Makhachev this weekend in Perth.
“I keep mentioning challenging yourself and all that type of stuff, but you need to do that — that’s how you get better,” said Volkanovski. “I’m always challenging myself, in the gym, with fights. If you want to be successful in anything, you need to do that — you need to go through adversities, you need to put yourself in challenging times, you need to put that type of work in.
UFC 284 COUNTDOWN: Makhachev vs Volkanovski
“That’s what it’s all about for me, and I’m the fighter I am now because of this challenge, compared to the fighter I was before. It’s incredible how much stronger I got, takedown defense, all that type of stuff. It’s like it happened overnight, purely because of the challenge. It’s like I didn’t even have to work for it — the mindset thing was a switch, like ‘All right, we need to get stronger, we need to do this,’ and it’s like I did it overnight.
“I’ve always done it. I’ve always put myself in these type of positions because that’s the type of guy that I am, but now I understand. Now I understand why it’s good, why I want to do it, why I should do it, and why more people in the world should do it.
“You want to be great? You want to be better? You want to separate yourself from the rest? This is what you’ve gotta do.”
