It is official.
Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev both want to run it back.
Speaking to Main Event’s Niko Pajarillo after the lightweight champion successfully defended his belt at UFC 284, the pair confirmed they were interested in a rematch.
“Why not?” Makhachev simply replied when asked if he would fight the Australian again.
“Let’s go. If they want, let’s go. I am ready.”
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When told that Makhachev was keen on facing off again, Volkanovski confidently responded that he too would welcome the chance to go for double-champ status once more.
“Rematch? Let’s do it. Done,” the Australian said.
“Not now,” he added on the prospect of going right back to featherweight immediately.
“Not now that you told me that. Rematch it is. Immediately, as soon as he can.”
A frank Volkanovski admitted while speaking to Main Event that he had one key regret that had him wishing he could start the entire fight all over again.
“I think in certain positions I might have given him a little too much respect,” he said.
“Straight away I said to the corner, ‘He’s not strong, maybe he’s baiting me. So don’t put yourself out of position too much this early.’
“So I let some rounds get away from me because I was worried, I guess I just thought more and right at the end I was going, ‘F***, what are you waiting for? Go for it’ and look what happened.
“Again, obviously now that I know that I wish I could do the start again, it would be a completely different fight. I wouldn’t give the guy as much respect as I did.
“Again, I have respect for the guy, I knew his team was good, prepared properly, maybe in certain positions I played it safe rather than capitalising and backing myself in certain positions.
“But again it was very close and a lot of people thought I won it anyway but that’s not good enough for me.”
While Volkanovski may be his harshest critic, Makhachev was full of praise for the Australian and went as far as to say he was the toughest opponent he had faced so far in his UFC career.
“He gave me [a] hard time but I [will] improve from this fight a lot,” Makhachev, who improved to a 24-1 record, told Main Event.
“He’s small but he’s so strong. That’s why he [was] pound-for-pound [the] best fighter in the world before. That’s why people called him [the] best fighter. He gave me a very good fight.”
Makhachev v Volkanovski Fight Highlights | 03:05
Volkanovski stunned Makhachev in the final round of the fight with a strong right hand, giving the raucous RAC Arena crowd one final glimmer of hope that the Australian would come out on top.
But Makhachev said he made a strategic decision to not strike with Volkanovski in the last round, knowing that he would have been up already on the scorecard.
“Always when I want I take him down, hold him but I don’t try to finish him many times because I know he’s going to be tough for all five rounds,” Makhachev said.
“He landed [a] good shot [in the] last round. My plan [was] don’t strike with him in [the] last round because I know I will win minimum three, four rounds and I just go to the ground, try to give him some submission maybe.”
Volkanovski was the big underdog for Sunday’s fight and while the result may have been far closer than some expected, the Australian was still disappointed to not have his hand raised.
“People thought it wouldn’t even be close and stuff like that, so a lot of people are obviously still proud of where it’s at but I expected to go out there and win.” he said.
“I’m always hard on myself, I’m my hardest critic. I’ve got to go watch the fight back. Credit to him, I know it was very close.”
