Alexander Volkanovski wants to win his upcoming rematch against Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 on 21st October via stoppage and wants to finish it early.
We’ll try to make sure it doesn’t go five rounds: Alexander Volkanovski
Volkanovski nodded to the short-notice rematch with Makhachev after Charles Oliveira, who was originally slated to take on the reigning UFC Lightweight champion at UFC 294, was pulled from the fight after the Brazilian suffered a nasty eyebrow cut during training.
Makhachev vs. Volkanovski 2 will serve as the rematch to their encounter at UFC 284 earlier this year which had gone the distance with Makhachev winning via a close unanimous decision.
The rematch has been highly anticipated by the fans and as speaking to reporters at a recent media scrum in Australia, “The Great” stated that this time, he doesn’t want the fight to end on the scorecards.
“It’s going to be an exciting one,” said Volkanovski. “Obviously, I want to go out there and hurt him. We’ll try to make sure it doesn’t go five rounds. I want to finish it early. I don’t want to test his gas tank. Don’t get me wrong, I think I can do it, but let’s not try and test it. Let’s just finish it nice and early.”
The 145-pound champion will have a second shot at becoming double champ this Saturday night, and Volkanovski plans on attaining that status by securing a knockout of his Russian adversary.
“With how excited I am, how refreshed I am — both mentally and physically — I’m going to be a dangerous man in there,” he added. “I plan on knocking him out.”
Following the loss to Makhachev, Volkanovski returned in July to defend his Featherweight gold against Yair Rodríguez at UFC 290 and was successful via 3rd round knockout. He was then slated to face Ilia Topuria at UFC 297 in January, but when the call for the short-notice rematch against Makhachev arrived, Volkanovski had no doubts in making the decision.
“I didn’t hesitate at all,” Volkanovski went on. “There was probably a smile on my face straightaway and it was, ‘Oh, we’re going to do it,’ let the manager do his part with negotiations. He’s asking about the weight, ‘We’ll get it done, don’t worry about that.’ But I had a smile on my face.”
“The next day, or couple of days, I literally just was laughing thinking how crazy this is, but happy at the same time. I think I needed this, to be honest,” he concluded. [H/T MMA Fighting]
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