Islam Makhachev talks final day of sparring ahead of UFC 284: “I need to eat something or someone.”

Islam Makhachev, the UFC lightweight champion, is just days away from fighting the featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski. AKA coach Javier Mendez spent some time speaking with the Dagestani UFC champ.

While speaking to the AKA trainer, the Russian-born Makhachev was asked how he was feeling. He answered:

“I feel good, just hungry. I need to eat something or someone.”

The rest of the clip is followed by Makhachev and Mendez discussing their Russian and Spanish language abilities.

See the full video clip below:

Islam Makhachev vs Alexander Volkanovski

On February 11, the UFC 284 main event will see the battle of two world champions. The featherweight world titleholder ‘The Great’ Alexander Volkanovski will go up in weight to challenge Islam Makhachev in a lightweight championship showdown.

Makhachev has a 23-1 record having captured the lightweight throne at UFC 280 earlier this year. the Dagestani athlete submitted the former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira in round two of their matchup. The Dagestani wrestler Islam Makhachev talks final day of sparring ahead of UFC 284: “I need to eat something or someone.” is a student of Abdulmanap and Khabib Nurmagomedov

Volkanovski earned the featherweight world title in 2019 and has notable wins over Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes, Max Holloway, Brian Ortega, and ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung. The pound-for-pound king has defended his title in four bouts.

Coming into the UFC 284 fight, Australia’s Volkanovski is the underdog as many people are noting his size disadvantage. Alexander ‘The Great’ Volkanovki is well aware of this but asks followers to not change the narrative when he wins. In an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, he said:

“The way people are talking. It’s funny, people quickly forget. At the end of the day, they’ll forget again when I get my hand raised … There’s a narrative right now … But there’s a lot of people who are going to doubt me, which I love, all that type of stuff, undersized, Dagestani wrestler, that’s good, but remember that. Don’t change the narrative when I get my hand raised.”