UFC 284: Makhachev vs Volkanovski - Feb 11 🇦🇺

[wandshogun09]

OK, this is still a way off and the card isn’t finalised yet but it’s a big one and I wanted to get a thread up to get the ball rolling on some discussion. Because this fight deserves it. We’re off Down Under for this one, the Octagon lands in Perth…

PPV MAIN CARD
Islam Makhachev©️vs Alexander Volkanovski - Lightweight Title

Yair Rodriguez vs Josh Emmett - Interim Featherweight Title 

Jack Della Maddalena vs Randy Brown

Justin Tafa vs Parker Porter 

Jimmy Crute vs Alonzo Menifield  

ESPN PRELIMS 
Tyson Pedro vs Modestas Bukauskas 

Josh Culibao vs Melsik Baghdasaryan

Kleydson Rodrigues vs Shannon Ross

Jamie Mullarkey vs Francisco Prado 

ESPN+/FIGHT PASS PRELIMS 
Jack Jenkins vs Don Shainis

Loma Lookboonmee vs Elise Reed

Blake Bilder vs Shane Young

Zubaira Tukhugov vs Elves Brenner

 

Again, this is not the final bout order. I’m almost certain there’s gonna be a few more fights added yet. And hopefully some good ones because this card in its current form is piss weak below the top two fights. To be fair, we were supposed to get Robert Whittaker vs Paulo Costa and Kai Kara-France vs Alex Perez on this card. Losing those fights has changed the look of this one for the worse. But at the very least we should be getting a Jack Della Maddalena fight added. He’s from Perth, born and bred, so it wouldn’t make much sense to not have him in a prominent position on this card. Ideally something like Dariush vs Poirier would round this card out nicely, and it would provide a couple of backups if anyone drops out of the main event. But it’s getting late in the day to get a fight like that made now.

 

Islam Makhachev vs Alexander Volkanovski is proper big time stuff. Lightweight champ vs Featherweight champ. About as high level a champion vs champion fight as you could ask for right now. Two men who are surely in the prime of their careers. Unless there’s somehow better to come, which is a scary thought! It’s almost a shame in a way that there hasn’t been any time for people to really clamour for this because Makhachev’s only just got the belt. I think that’s why it doesn’t feel as big as it probably should. But purely as a fight and the way the styles match up on paper, it’s truly a fascinating clash.

Makhachev just reached the top of the mountain in October, taking the Lightweight belt away from Charles Oliveira in one of the best performances of 2022. Definitely the best performance of Makhachev’s career to date. There’d been a fair bit of criticism of Makhachev going in. Mostly a load of complaining that he was even getting the title shot to begin with. Granted, he hadn’t beat any of the top ranked big names at 155 but he was on a long winning streak and the ‘names’ like Poirier, Gaethje and Chandler only seemed interested in fighting each other anyway. Makhachev finished Drew Dober, Thiago Moises, Dan Hooker and Bobby Green in consecutive fights and, to be fair, was scheduled to fight Rafael Dos Anjos and Beneil Dariush before injuries nixed both. When Oliveira vs Makhachev was announced, I was chuffed. Never got all the moaning about it myself. It was a mega interesting matchup on paper and way more preferable to Oliveira just continuously defending against the same few names in re-runs.

Going into that fight, I went through the whole range of scenarios I saw playing out. I was hovering around 50/50 the whole time but was initially leaning towards Makhachev. As the fight got close though, I swung towards a Charles win. I wanted Charles to win so maybe there was a little bit of wishful thinking there but I genuinely thought Oliveira would just prove too well rounded. I don’t think even the biggest Makhachev/Dagestani bum sniffers could’ve predicted the fight to go quite how it did. Makhachev pretty much bossed the fight from start to finish. Got tagged a few times but held his own in the striking way more than I expected, then finished it by submission! Post-fight, Makhachev dedicated the win to his late coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov…

“You know, Abdulmanap always told me when I was young, ‘You gonna be champion’. My coach was the first to believe in me. I wasn’t special, I wasn’t different from the rest and throughout my career he believed in me and told me that I would be champion, that I just needed to practice. And today, when I became champion, I would really like to put the belt on my coach in the octagon.” - Islam Makhachev 

Khabib’s been quoted in the past saying Makhachev was always one of his Dad’s favourite students and saw him as the next in line behind Khabib. “When you leave, Islam will arrive” is how Khabib remembers him putting it. It’s a shame he didn’t live long enough to see that moment. Very interesting times ahead. It’s kind of unusual but Makhachev winning the title feels like the start of something more than the culmination of a journey. Because he didn’t face all those big names on the way up, it’s all fresh fights going forward. And this one is as intriguing as any of them.

Volkanovski, in my opinion, is the pound-for-pound number one fighter in the sport right now. Name me a better choice. A man in his absolute prime and firing on all cylinders. He’s 25-1 with 15 finishes and currently on a 22 fight winning streak. His only career defeat was way back in 2013 in a fight up at Welterweight. Hard to really hold that against him considering it was only his fourth pro fight and he was fighting 2 divisions out of his optimum weight class. If he’d been at 145/155 his whole career, he’d obviously be undefeated now. It was a bit of a slow burn for a while but he’s just kept winning and winning and winning. Over the last few years he’s stopped Chad Mendes, beat the legendary Jose Aldo in Brazil, survived the BJJ onslaught of Brian Ortega and battered him, smashed up the Korean Zombie to the point Zombie’s now talking about retiring. Oh and he’s gone 3-0 over some bloke called Max Holloway.

An insane run. That third Holloway fight in July was probably the best performance of Volk’s career, and that’s saying a lot. Honestly, when you factor in how great Holloway is, the way Volk just completely shut him down and outclassed him, it was one of the greatest displays I’ve ever seen. I never thought he’d be able to top how clearly he beat Max in their first fight but he really drove a final nail in their rivalry with that third fight. It was a complete shutout. Nobody dominates Holloway like that. Even up at 155, Poirier had to go life and death with Max in a war to beat him. Volk just looked on another level. It was hard to imagine who could even be next in line to challenge Volk after that. As much talent as there is at 145, everyone seemed to be a win or two away. Volk made it clear after the fight that he’d be up for going up to 155 and doing the champ vs champ thing. Given the state of the Featherweight division and what Volk had accomplished, the UFC couldn’t really deny him. He was even the backup for Oliveira vs Makhachev in October. Thankfully that fight went ahead but it was only fair that Volkanovski would get first crack at the winner.

The ‘Superfight’ is on. Like I said, it doesn’t feel as big as it should. Maybe that’s just because it’s still a bit of a way off but I think it’s a bit more than that. I think if Oliveira had won that Makhachev fight, this would feel like a bigger deal just because Oliveira is more popular and had put a little run together as champ at 155. Him coming off those wild fights against Gaethje, Poirier and Chandler and then facing Volkanovski who’s been dominating at 145 would’ve felt like a real clash of titans. Whereas Makhachev’s literally just won the belt. There hadn’t been time for us to build up a desire to really wanna see this one. But now it’s booked, I can’t wait to see how it goes. Volk sounds bang up for it as well.

“No disrespect, but that’s why this fight is so big to me. It’s the Dagestani wrestling, no-one can figure it out, they’re on a roll and all that. Khabib’s there, Islam, what he’s been doing his last few fights. All that. I was chasing the ‘champ champ’, that’s what motivated me even before I knew who I was fighting. As soon as Islam won and the people started talking, bang, that’s all I cared about is taking out Islam. Especially being a Featherweight moving up to Lightweight. Then fighting not only any Lightweight, you’re going to Dagestani wrestling Islam who’s known to just control and throw around all these Lightweights. When I get my hand raised, it just makes it so much bigger. It’s going to be extra special getting both belts on them shoulders, but also who I’m taking out in the process.”

“Do I think this is gonna be easy? No. Does it need a lot of preparation? Yeah, it does, definitely. But just because it’s a challenge, should I just protect my record, protect this pound-for-pound spot? Nah. Take it on. It’s going to make you a better fighter. And honestly, I’ve still got 8 weeks left and I’m already twice the fighter I was. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. I love people doubting me. Seeing people like, ‘He’s gonna be too big, too strong’ and all this. The challenge, the opponent I’ve got, that excites me. Going for ‘champ champ’ and taking out Islam is really what people are going to remember. A lot of people think he’s unstoppable right now, I’m going to show that he is stoppable.” - Alexander Volkanovski

I like it. Confidence but not delusional. I still get the feeling we haven’t seen the best of Makhachev yet. Which is quite scary to think about. The toughest opponent he’s had so far was Oliveira and he rose to the occasion and looked better than ever in that one. I get the feeling he’s one of those fighters who needs to feel that element of danger to bring the best out of them. While Volk doesn’t offer the immediate threat Oliveira does in terms of knockouts or submissions, he’s so technically sound and makes so few mistakes that, even with the size disadvantage, he’s gonna be the trickiest test for Islam yet. I’d love to see Volk pull this off. It’d be a career defining achievement in an already all time great career. He’s already one of the best ever for me, a win like this would undeniably cement him as the possible GOAT. I am slightly favouring Makhachev though. I just think at this level, that size edge is probably gonna make the difference. But the more I’m thinking about it, I can see this being a lot tougher for Islam than I originally thought. Volk’s the better striker, we know that. But even the grappling, I don’t think Islam’s necessarily gonna have an easy time getting those takedowns. I think Volk’s short, stocky frame could actually benefit him there. It’s such an interesting matchup. Crossing everything that it goes ahead but I do think they should try and get a couple of backups on the card just incase. Or even just pay Beneil Dariush to make weight as a precaution. Hopefully it won’t be necessary though because I really wanna see this fight play out now.

 

Yair Rodriguez vs Josh Emmett co-headlines. For interim Featherweight gold. Yeah, not really needed but you know the UFC’s fetish for interim titles. Any excuse. And with Volk up at 155 challenging Makhachev, it gives the division something to fight over in the meantime, I guess. I’m not usually the biggest fan of interim belts but I don’t mind it in this case actually. And of course, there’s always the chance Volk wins the 155 belt and never comes back down in weight. I think that’s unlikely but at least if that happens, they can just upgrade this interim belt to full champ status. I think Volk will be back at 145 regardless though. As a fight this is fine. Although I do think it’s a tad harsh on Arnold Allen myself. I think he deserved to be in there but I did read he was injured so fuck knows? This’ll do.

Yair‘s a funny one. We’ve discussed it a bunch over the years but he’s such an odd case. Exciting as fuck to watch, he just does these disappearing acts every now and then and he’s wasted big chunks of what should’ve been his prime fighting years. At this point I’m just grateful when he does show up. He’s only just turned 30, he’s still got some time ahead of him as long as he stays healthy. And maybe now he’s in the title mix he’ll stick around. Maybe we’ll look back on his breaks as a smart move. He’s got such a wild and aggressive style, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to fight 3 times a year, to be honest. The fact he was able to come back after 2 whole years of inactivity and have that 5 round war with Max Holloway was crazy. Then he got that win over Ortega in July but it was a bit of an anticlimactic ending with Ortega’s injury and stuff. The more I’m thinking about it, it is a bit weird that Yair’s going for an interim title based on recent results. Oh well. Shouldn’t be boring.

Emmett’s deserving of the spot for sure but even then, his last win over Calvin Kattar in June was a very debatable decision. I think I had Kattar winning actually but it wasn’t some terrible robbery or anything. He’s on a solid 5 fight streak though. And at nearly 38 years old, time is of the essence. This is surely his last run at UFC gold. He’s never gonna get it done while Volkanovski is around, but maybe he can at least hold the interim belt. It sounds harsh but that’s as good as it’s getting for either man here, isn’t it? Unless Volk falls off or permanently moves up to 155, everyone at 145 is fighting for the silver medal. Not sure how this one goes. Haven’t given it much thought but my first feeling is Yair on points. Emmett has the bigger punching power and it won’t shock me if he clips Yair. I think the more likely scenario though, is Yair just being too fast, having a wider variety of weapons and getting the better of most of the exchanges over 5 rounds. Should be enjoyable enough.

 

Jack Della Maddalena vs Randy Brown is ***WAND’S ONE TO WATCH*** now. Was the Tyson Pedro fight but I said if something better got added I’d change it, and here we are. Really like the sound of this. I’ve been pretty high on Maddalena since I first saw him, thought he was one of the best signings of 2022 by far myself. Only 26 years old, 13-2 and on a 13 fight win streak, 12 finishes. He made his UFC debut last January and has gone 3-0 in the Octagon since with 3 first round knockouts and picked up two POTN bonuses. Stopped heavy handed Pete Rodriguez in his debut in January, finished durable Russian Ramazan Emeev in June, then bashed up Danny Roberts in November.

He looks the business. Of course there’s questions to be asked. We’ve only really seen his striking so far and, while he looks really sharp there, obviously there’s more to MMA than that. And one of his early losses was by submission. Still, can’t knock his performances so far. I like him as well. From the few interviews I’ve seen he just seems like a normal, laid back family man. Young Volk vibes. He was actually born in Perth as well so getting him on this card was a no brainer. Glad they got him a fight. There were some rumours of him fighting Li Jingliang, which would’ve been a fun one, but this’ll do nicely. Randy Brown is a fairly significant step up, I reckon. He’s not a big name but he’s definitely a tougher test than anyone we’ve seen Maddalena in with yet. He’s 16-4, on a 4 fight winning streak himself, and has wins over Francisco Trinaldo, Khaos Williams, Alex Oliveira, Warlley Alves, Bryan Barberena and Mickey Gall. Yeah, not a who’s who but it’s a decent resume. Brown’s a big Welterweight as well at 6’3” with a 78 inch reach. Could be a tricky one for Maddalena. Really interested to see how he does striking with someone like Brown.

 

Justin Tafa vs Parker Porter is the obligatory fat fuck Heavyweight offering this time. Every card must have one, I guess. I don’t mind this though. Neither are much good but Tafa is a guy I’ve had a soft spot for ever since I saw his barmy slobberknocker with Carlos Felipe a while ago.

Somehow it went the distance with them swinging like that! Like I say, Tafa’s not gonna amount to much. Even in a shallow pool of talent like HW. He’s 5-3 and going nowhere. But as low a level as he’s operating on, I’d rather see someone like him kept on the roster than a lot of the shitehawks that populate the division. At least he’s not boring. He’s coming into this fight off a first round headkick knockout over Harry Hunsucker but hasn’t fought in over a year. Tafa made history in that one as well. He became the first fighter in UFC history to miss weight at Heavyweight!! A true pioneer. With emphasis on the pie. I hope he wins here because Porter is cack and doesn’t even have the good grace to be entertainingly shit. He’s 12-7 and coming off a quick submission loss to Jailton Almeida in May. Aside from that, I say it every time he fights but all these years later, the most notable thing about Porter’s record is still that he got knocked out in 36 seconds by some rookie named Jon Jones back in 2008. Says it all really.

 

Jimmy Crute vs Alonzo Menifield is a decent enough fight for a mess of a division like 205. Even this though, both were kind of seen as prospects at one point but it’s clear they’re not really going anywhere now. Feels like they’re both just gonna stay in this middle of the pack spot forever, trading wins and losses at the same level. Kind of sums up what the Light Heavyweight division has become in recent years. Crute’s gonna be the crowd favourite being an Aussie. He’s still only 26, which is very young by 205’s standards of today. He has some solid wins over Paul Craig, Michal Oleksiejczuk and…Sam Alvey. But he’s already lost to Misha Cirkunov, who’s nothing special and now gone from the company. And he’s coming into this fight off a couple of stoppage defeats to Anthony Smith and Jamahal Hill. The ceiling has been hit a couple of times now.

Menifield’s my guy here. He came in a few years back off DWCS. He was undefeated at the time, with all his wins by knockout and had brief spells in Bellator and LFA. His UFC stint got off to a good start and he stopped Paul Craig in a round in 2019. It all went to shite after that though. He’s 13-3 now and the losses were to very average opposition. He’s no better than Crute on paper. I just like him more. Seems a likeable guy from bits I’ve seen. He’s got back on track a bit lately as well. He got a TKO over that ‘one and done’ weirdo Askar Mozharov in June, then sparked Cirkunov in about 90 seconds as pictured above. Not a bad little fight for what it is. But it feels meaningless and certainly not PPV worthy.

 

Tyson Pedro vs Modestas Bukauskas is a late switch up. Pedro was originally supposed to fight Octagon newbie Zhang Mingyang who fought on that ‘Road To UFC’ thing. Mingyang withdrew and that cleared the way for Bukauskas to make his UFC return. He was a former Cage Warriors champion and sounded quite promising when he signed with the UFC but it didn’t pan out for him. He went 1-3 overall in that stint and his last loss was gruesome. UFC watchers last saw him in September 2021 getting his knee kicked backwards by Khalil Rountree in fucking horrific fashion…

Christ! The UFC let him go not long after as well, which I thought was harsh but he was on a 3 fight losing streak. It was hard not to feel bad for him though, getting binned right after that injury. He returned to Cage Warriors in November and has won 2 fights there since. He reclaimed their vacant Light Heavyweight title with a 4th round knockout in his last fight in December and here we are. I’m a fan of this matchup actually. I like Pedro and it’s been great to see him return and get a couple of wins after the absolute horror show of injuries he’s dealt with in recent years. He was on the shelf from 2018 all the way to 2022, a lifetime in MMA. He’s came back with a couple of quick finishes but it was only Ike Villanueva and Harry Hunsucker, nothing to get too excited about. But if anyone needed a couple of squash matches, it was Pedro. On paper, this should be more of a test though. Hopefully Bukauskas has his swagger back now and it’ll make for a good scrap.

 

Josh Culibao vs Melsik Baghdasaryan is filler but not bad filler. Culibao’s Aussie, 28 years old with a record of 10-1-1. His only loss is against Jalin Turner, no shame there, Turner’s on the rise. Since then he’s managed to take Charles Jourdain to a draw and has picked up a couple of points wins in his last two outings. Nothing amazing about him but I vaguely recall him being decent. Baghdasaryan is 31, Armenian and 7-1 with 5 knockouts. He also had a Kickboxing record of 9-2 with 4 knockouts and a Boxing record of 3-0 with 1 knockout. So he’s had a bit of a dabble in pretty much everything. Made his UFC debut in July 2021, getting a second round finish over Collin Anglin. I remember him looking really good in that one. He then took a decision off Bruno Souza on the MSG card that November but was inactive throughout 2022 for whatever reason.

 

Kleydson Rodrigues vs Shannon Ross. I’ll give it a bash. Never seen Shannon Ross before but I’m gonna be rooting for Rodrigues regardless. He’s a student of Big Nog! How could I not? 

He’s 27 years old and has a record of 7-2 with 5 finishes. Nog’s high on him but he would be with him being his protégé, wouldn’t he? He’s already hit a roadblock in his UFC debut in May though, losing a split decision to CJ Vergara. I don’t think I saw that fight but maybe the split decision could be an indicator it was close or even controversial? Whatever the case, I hope he gets his first Octagon win here. Ross is Australian, 12-6 with 7 finishes and coming off a TKO loss on DWCS in August. Bit odd that he’s being given a shot coming off a stoppage loss when other guys on DWCS don’t even get picked up after a win. But I guess they just want Aussie bodies to fill up this card.

 

Jamie Mullarkey vs Francisco Prado is a late change that’s kind of caught my eye. It was supposed to be Mullarkey against Nasrat Haqparast but Haqparast is out and I think this might actually be better. Mullarkey’s the definition of a scrapper. Doesn’t seem like the brightest bulb and that picture of him with his UFC Venum shorts on backwards pretty much confirms that, but he’s always in entertaining fights win or lose. His UFC debut against Brad Riddell a few years ago was an absolute barnburner that I loved. I mention it every time him or Riddell fight and I make no apologies for it. If you never saw it, fix that. He’s 15-5 now and coming off what I remember being a bit of an iffy split decision over Michael Johnson in July. Once again though, a fun fight. Prado makes his first Octagon appearance here. Never heard of him but, just looking him up now, he sounds like a good signing. He’s Argentinian, only 20 years old and he currently has a perfect record of 11-0, all finishes. None of the names on his record jump out but at 20 he’s not gonna have fought a who’s who. Fair play to him because Mullarkey is a tough fight for a 20 year old making his UFC debut. Especially considering it’s on short notice and on Mullarkey’s home turf in Australia.

 

Jack Jenkins vs Don Shainis. Don’t know, don’t particularly care but it might be OK. I’m just not familiar enough with either man to be looking forward to it. Sherdog tells me Jenkins is from Melbourne and his record currently stands at 10-2 with 8 finishes. His age isn’t even listed! He got a late TKO win on DWCS in his last fight in September. That’s about it. Shainis is 12-4 with 10 finishes. He made his UFC debut on short notice back in October and got guillotine choked in 30 seconds by Sodiq Yusuff. Not the best first impression but it was late notice. Let’s see what he’s got after a full training camp. If nothing else, these two sound like they go for the kill so it might be decent.

 

Loma Lookboonmee vs Elise Reed is obviously nothing to get excited about but I usually enjoy watching Lookboonmee fight. She’s never gonna be a contender I don’t think. She’s only 27 but I just don’t see her ever having enough of a well rounded MMA skillset to really make a dent in the Strawweight division. But for where she usually is on the cards, I don’t mind watching her style on these ham and eggers with her Muay Thai every now and then. This is the type of fight she usually wins as well. I don’t really rate Reed. She’s had a couple of alright decision wins over Cory McKenna and Melissa Martinez but I reckon Loma should school her on the feet here.

 

Blake Bilder vs Shane Young is a bit of a mystery really but I’ll take a look. It’s Bilder’s Octagon debut and I’d never heard of him before this fight was announced but he’s undefeated at 7-0-1, with 5 finishes, and is coming off a submission victory on DWCS in August. The last time we saw New Zealand’s Young was March 2021. He lost on points to Omar Morales that night. He’s 13-6 overall now and hasn’t really done anything of note, although he did go the distance with Volkanovski on a UFC undercard in 2017.

 

Zubaira Tukhugov vs Elves Brenner. Not arsed. Tukhugov does nothing for me. He’s got a decent enough record of 20-5-1 but he’s been on the roster since 2014 now and has done very little that sticks in the memory. He beat Ricardo Ramos by decision last time out, which isn’t a bad win. But that was well over a year ago now. He missed all of 2022. Honestly, the only thing I remember Tukhugov for is that he was the guy who jumped in the cage and suckerpunched Conor McGregor during the chaos after the Khabib fight years ago. If that’s your claim to fame after a 26 fight career, it’s not saying much is it? Brenner is making his UFC debut here and stepping in on late notice. He’s filling in for Joel Alvarez who pulled out for undisclosed reasons. A quick look on Sherdog tells me Brenner is 25 years old and 13-3 with 12 finishes, 11 via submission. Nothing leaps off the screen about his record but he’s coming off a first round submission in PFL in his last fight nearly a year ago.

 

UFC Perf. 

Edited January 26, 2023 by wandshogun09

[Jesse]

Don't think I've watched a UFC live in the past few years but Volk vs Makhachev feels like one to be there for - you've either got Volkanovski cementing himself even further among the best to ever do it, or you've got more evidence that Islam is about to be 155's Volkanovski. Might just set an alarm for it though because as you say the undercard is underwhelming for this one.

[Egg Shen]

this card took some hits, it's harmed it but i'm still liking what i'm seeing. Makhachev/Volkanovksi is one of the best fights the UFC has ever put on, can't wait.

[wandshogun09]

Finally something a bit juicy for the undercard. Updated the opening post for this, my new ‘one to watch’…

 

[Egg Shen]

thats a beaut.

[Egg Shen]

 

 

[wandshogun09]

Fuck this 🥶 

 

[David]

What? Just looks like a bunch of lads from Motherwell at a stag do in the Scottish Highlands?

[wandshogun09]

Fuck, this is just around the corner! 

[WeeAl]

Those top two fights are great, supported by a Fight Night undercard. 

Volkanovski Vs Makhachev is pretty huge. Two guys at the peak of the powers, undeniably the best in their respective divisions, facing off to decide perhaps the best lighter weight fighter in the sport. Probably the pound for pound best fighter in the sport really. 

For once I don't have a big issue with the interim FW belt. If Volk loses here, it firmly sets out his next challenger for the summer. If Volkanovski wins the Lightweight belt, I do expect him to come back down to 145, but not until after he would try to defend the 155 belt first in the summer. In that case it's good to have another champ set up in case it's 2024 before Volkanovski would be ready to fight at 145 again. 

Justin Tafa Vs Parker Porter on a PPV main card though? Don't care if it's in Oz, that's pish. Needed maybe one other strong fight with divisional importance in that 3rd main card slot. 

[Egg Shen]

Makachev/Volkanovski skill for skill might be the best 'Superfight' in the history of the sport for me, its great. If Volkanovski pulls this off he enters legit GOAT territory. Cannot wait.

They've fallen a little unlucky with the card, they lost Whitaker and Kara-France leading in.

Edited January 26, 2023 by Egg Shen

[Kfogg1991]

Makachev has come out on Twitter (and for once a fighter takes to social media too air a grievance and its a fucking valid point) and said it's almost insulting that this fight with volkanovski is round the corner yet there has been no advertising or push for it at all yet power slap is being promoted and pushed online massively.

You absolutely cannot disagree or argue with this at all, 2 champions going in there for potential double champ status and the company is more interested in promoting a venture that is being panned and demolished worldwide yet this ppv is being overlooked and under valued 

 

 

[Egg Shen]

I get it the frustration, but we've had this discussion on here before. Fight promotion doesn't really ramp up until the week of the fight these days, from an online perspective anyway. 

[Dai]

Adding to what Ebb says, Mayweather/McGregor this aint. Suggesting a world tour for this fight makes him sound like his ego has gotten way out of control. As good as these guys are, Volk and Islam are not going to set the PPV world on fire with this one. The added 'draw' of Champ vs Champ means nothing these days either. Theres going to plenty of 'bigger' fights (in terms of interest) in the coming year, so have no issues with the lack of promotion so far.

[wandshogun09]

Jesus wept.