Alexander Volkanovski is getting even more respect on his name.
The UFC Featherweight Champion sought out lightweight gold at UFC 284 when he fought divisional kingpin Islam Makhachev. Unfortunately for Volkanovski, he lost on the scorecards after a hard-fought battle and missed his chance to become a two-weight world champion.
Volkanovski’s ‘Absolutely Remarkable’ Showing
Nearly dethroning Makhachev, ‘The Great’ has been praised quite a lot for his impressive performance. Such praise has come from former Bellator Champion Josh Thomson who says it was nothing short of remarkable.
“Alexander Volkanovski fought his f*cking ass off,” Thomson said on ‘Weighing In’. “He fought fantastic. He did everything. What he did was remarkable in my eyes, absolutely remarkable.
“He did something that no other 155 pounders that [Makhachev] has fought has been able to do. That means get up. That means almost switch takedowns, almost get a takedown. All of those things other fighters have not been able to do against him, and he did it. And he is the smaller, the lighter guy, all of those things. He landed some great shots. He did some great things.”
Thomson Thinks Makhachev’s Weight Cut Got To Him
Not to take away from Volkanovski’s performance in any facet, but Thomson believes Makhachev’s weight cut may have affected him when it came time to fight the Aussie.
“I really do feel that in this situation is that the weight cut got to him and his body showed it… I said that [while he was] walking into the cage, he looks smooth, he looks flat, something looks off. We talked about his energy walking into the cage. I think he felt that feeling. Now look, I’m not here to make excuses for him. They both fought their asses off. They both fought a great fight.
“Everyone that [I] had talked to, that said to me previously about the Oliveira fight and about anybody else he had fought, ‘oh, he’s gonna get knocked out, he doesn’t have a chin’. All of these things, a lot of this I feel has to do with on how well he does his weight cuts. He is someone that cuts a lot of weight and I believe that whether his chin is good or not has to do with on how well his weight cut is. Because as we saw with TJ Dillashaw, TJ Dillashaw’s got a hell of a chin, but he didn’t have that chin against Henry Cejudo. Gone.”
