Alexander Volkanovski set to serve as backup for Charles Oliveira, Islam Makhachev at UFC 280: ‘See you in Abu Dhabi’
The battle for the lightweight thone has a formidable substitute should things go sideways. Alexander Volkanovski, the UFC featherweight champion, is tapped to be the fill-in should either main event fighter, Charles Oliveira or Islam Makhachev, be unable to make the fight at UFC 280.
The Australian champion Alexander Volkanovski shared on Twitter:
“It’s Official, I’m the backup fighter for the Light Weight title! See you all in Abu Dhabi 👊 #UFC280.”
A featherweight champion being backup for a lightweight title fight is reminiscent of UFC 223. In 2018, the mentor of Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov was booked to fight Tony Ferguson for the vacant UFC lightweight championship. Due to a last-minute knee injury on Ferguson’s side, the UFC brought in Max Holloway, then-featherweight king, to face Dagestan’s Nurmagomedov. For various reasons, this fight also never materialized.
The UFC 280 main event is a lightweight clash for the vacant throne. Due to weight issues on the side of Brazil’s Charles Oliveira, he was not eligible to walk away with the title in his last win against Justin Gaethje. The weight cut to the 155 championship limit has been draining on both Russia’s Makhachev and ‘Do Bronx.’ Should there be any issues or injuries, the featherweight champion ‘The Great’ Alexander Volkanovski will be on deck to capture gold in a second division. UFC 280 will go down on October 22.
Alexander Volkanovski at lightweight
‘The Great’ Alexander Volkanovski has a perfect undefeated record in the UFC. The Australian world champion has defended his illustrious title against notable fighters such as ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung, Brian Ortega, and Max Holloway. Volkanovski has been aiming for a lightweight title clash for some time.
Sitting down with fellow Australian countryman Robert Whittaker earlier this year, Volkanovski laid out his case for why he wants the lightweight title. He said:
“I’m in a position now where I want to take my best options. What’s the best route for me and things like that. Obviously lightweight — I’ve been talking about wanting to do that, and I didn’t wait until I went out there and finished that chapter with Max to really call for it. I’m the type of guy I feel like it needs to be earned. You ain’t just going to call for things if it’s not deserved.“
Volkanovski went on to add that moving to lightweight and making a bid for a second title makes sense as featherweight needs some time to sort itself out. He continued:
“I think I deserve it. A lot of people are talking about it and want it, so I want to go out and take on that challenge. I know a lot of people want to see it. Right now, there’s a lot of killers in our division. But I want a clear No. 1 guy.”
