American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez sees Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski running things back down the line.
Makhachev (24-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) retained his lightweight title with a decision win over featherweight champ Volkanovski (25-2 MMA, 12-1 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC 284 headliner in Perth, Australia.
Although Makhachev was awarded a unanimous decision, Volkanovski surpassed all expectations by making it a close, back-and-forth battle. Volkanovski thinks he should have won, and Makhachev’s head coach wouldn’t be surprised if the pair rematched in the future.
“I definitely think the UFC is gonna want to see a rematch,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “So, I don’t see no reason why they wouldn’t do a rematch. I think it would be great. I think the fans would love it. I think Islam would be down for it also. And obviously Alex is. Because, I mean, come on now, he calls himself ‘Alexander the Great,’ and he lives up to that name. So, there’s a reason why he’s such a gentleman. He’s a competitor. He feels he won, but that’s the way you’re supposed to feel. And he’s got the right attitude, and yeah, I think at some point they probably will do a rematch.”
Mendez admits he was surprised with how well Volkanovski performed, but Makhachev’s mentor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, expected a stern test.
“It was definitely a challenge,” Mendez said. “Alex, he actually became the challenge Khabib told me that he was gonna be. He felt that Alex was gonna be the toughest challenge for Islam and that Islam was gonna have to grind it out through the end. That’s what he felt. And I said, well, I didn’t know, because the way I looked at Islam, he looked fantastic in training. But Khabib had a feeling that it was gonna be a tougher fight than I anticipated myself. So, it was exactly what Khabib thought it was. It was a real tough fight. We got pound-for-pound for a reason, but we beat it from a guy that is the greatest of all time in the featherweight division and one of the greats of all time. He’s gonna be, no doubt.”
He continued, “It didn’t surprise me at the beginning. I was thinking, OK, he’s super strong. But then he got stronger as the rounds went on. So it’s like everybody talks about him, he doesn’t get tired, that guy. He was a very fresh guy going into the fifth round. At the beginning I thought maybe the grappling would slow him down. It didn’t slow him down.
“No, he just got better and better as the rounds went on.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 284.
