Daniel Cormier had high praise for Alexander Volkanovski’s performance against Islam Makhachev at UFC 284.
Featherweight champion Volkonvski (25-2 MMA, 12-1 UFC) took Cormier’s teammate, lightweight champ Makhachev (24-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC), to the brink in their title fight this past Saturday at RAC Arena in Perth, Australia. Makhachev won by unanimous decision in a tightly contested battle.
As he promised, Volkanovski was able to get back up from numerous takedowns and showed good resistance on the ground when Makhachev was holding him down. Makhachev has dominated almost every opponent he’s faced, but Volkanovski was able to mark up his face and stay out of danger on the mat.
“Alexander Volkanovski was the first person to make Islam Makhachev look human,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Granted, he made him look human, but he still didn’t win the fight. And I think because of the praise and the admiration that Alexander gets for his performance, I think it speaks to how special Makhachev is.”
Cormier scored the fight 3-2 in favor of Makhachev, awarding him Rounds 1, 2 and 4. He thinks the public criticism toward Makhachev was unfair, and that he too deserves credit for his performance – especially for being able to hang with Volkanovski standing up.
“He was landing a lot of the real damaging shots, and he won the fight,” Cormier said. “The feigned outrage that was online was unfair because it’s not real. It’s not real. There was no reason for people to seem upset at the result of that fight, because Makhachev won. He won the fight three rounds to two in my opinion. The judge that scored it 49-46, it’s just a bad scorecard.”
Although he was involved in a champion-vs.-champion fight himself against Stipe Miocic, Cormier said not only is Makhachev vs. Volkanovski the best one he’s ever seen, but it could be the best one overall by the end of 2023.
“All in all, great fight,” Cormier said. “This was a tremendous fight. And to be this early in the year, this one has potential because of who they are to still be in the mix for Fight of the Year by the end of the year, which was amazing.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 284.
