The top two ranked UFC pound-for-pound fighters, Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski went toe-to-toe at UFC 284, making for one of the more memorable main events of recent times. The fight was a highly competitive and a very technical affair between a couple of masters in the octagon.
Ultimately, Islam Makhachev edged past Alexander Volkanovski to retain the lightweight title via unanimous decision. The fight could have gone either way with the judge’s scorecards reading (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) in Makhachev’s favor. Makhachev is likely to pass Volkanovski in the pound-for-pound rankings to take the top spot.
At the beginning of the fight, Volkanovski looked sharper and faster but Makhachev had a very clear power advantage, knocking Volkanovski back with some short shots. Volkanovski did however manage to hurt him multiple times with his stand-up game. By the later stages of the fight Makhachev showed his great technical skills, showing beautiful reads and counter strikes to Volkanovski’s takedown attempts.
The 31-year old Makhachev, increased his win streak to 12 with the victory and currently has a professional MMA record of 24-1-0. The Russian’s only loss came to Adriano Martins back in 2015, via TKO (Punches).
This was Alexander Volkanovski’s second loss of his career but it should be noted that he was fighting out of his weight division. As the current UFC featherweight champion, Volkanovski will likely have to defend his title later this year.
Yair Rodriguez was able to beat Josh Emmett via second-round submission in Saturday’s co-main event, taking home the interim UFC featherweight championships. As a consequence, Volkanovski and Rodriguez will likely unify the belts at a later date.
It is still unclear who and when Makhachev will have his next title defense at the current time.
Other UFC 284 Results
UFC 284: Makhachev vs Volkanovski had a number of other competitive fights in their man event card. The results are listed below:
- Yair Rodriguez def. Josh Emmett via submission 4:19 Round 2: Featherweight Division
- Jimmy Crute vs. Alonzo Menifield ended in a majority draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28): Light Heavyweight Division
- Jack Della Maddalena def. Randy Brown by submission (RNC) at 2:13 of round 1: Welterweight Division
- Justin Tafa def. Parker Porter by KO at 1:06 of round 1: Heavyweight Division
If you missed out on betting on UFC 284, make sure you read through our list of the top UFC betting sites for next time.
