This past weekend in sports was an entertaining one for sure. Saturday night was UFC 284 and Sunday was the Super Bowl. Somehow someway the main event of UFC 284 outshined the Super Bowl. The main event wasn't the only show stealer. Hometown hero, Jack Della Maddalena pulled out a huge victory against Randy Brown via submission. No one saw that coming as Jack is a KO artist. Yair Rodriguez also put on a show against Josh Emmett to become the Interim Featherweight Champion and second Mexican-born champion ever. Yair would like to fight Volk in Mexico for the Featherweight Championship. However, due to how the main event played out Volk might have other plans.
Alexander Volkanovski vs Islam Makhachev for the Lightweight and pound-for-pound titles. This was as close of a championship fight as you will ever see. Due to the loud reaction on Twitter, I am surprised every judge saw that fight the same way. Two judges scored the fight 48-47 while the other scored it 49-46 all in Makhachev's favor. Immediately following the unanimous decision former UFC superstar, Nate Diaz tweeted "Yeah right Islam got his ass whooped." Joe Rogan's live reaction via The Calabasas Fight Companion live stream was going against the judges as well. Rogan felt that the way Volk ended round five won him the fight. The part where I agree with Diaz and Rogan is if you look at Islam and Volk side by side after they fought without actually viewing the fight you would say Alex won. Due to this I would even argue Volk should still be the number-one ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC.
The two judges that scored 48-47 had rounds one, two, and four going to Islam and Volk winning three and five. The other judge had every round besides round three going Islam's way. To score round five for Islam is kind of crazy, but it is what it is. Round two is the controversial one.
Whether you had Volk or Islam winning this fight, the deciding factor had to be round two. Every round besides round four was close. Islam just took Volk to the ground in round four and Volk didn't have much of an answer. Islam takes round one as well because he dropped Volk to a knee and finished the round by taking Volk to the ground for almost two minutes. Round two in my personal opinion was a 9-9 draw. No one clearly won that round. They were both striking back and forth and going for takedowns, but none landed. After rewatching the fight I scored the bout 47-46 in favor of Makhachev. 10-9 Islam in round one, 9-9 draw for round two, 10-9 for Volk in round three, 10-8 for Islam in round four, and 10-9 for Volk in round five. I couldn't give Volk a 10-8 in either of his winning rounds because Islam was firing back and doing a great job of landing shots at the beginning of both rounds, while also landing a takedown in round five that Volk quickly reversed. I do believe this fight should be run back.
The decision for Makhachev to win wasn't that controversial, but the fight was so close that there needs to be a rematch. However, the decision was not the only controversial instance for the main event. Dan Hooker took to Twitter saying that Makhachev was receiving IV before the fight. Nothing has been confirmed or denied, but the USADA rules say you can't receive an IV before fighting. Who knows? It could be true, it could be nothing. However, if it is true as close as that fight was a little boost of IV could have been the difference maker for Islam. During an interview with Ariel Helwani this weekend Volk said he doesn't really care, he would just like to fight again.
During this interview, Volk also mentioned how when he beat Max Holloway the fans didn't agree with the judges either. What did Volk do about that? He gave Holloway a rematch. The only difference in scenarios is that didn't hold up two divisions, so a rematch might not be up to Makhachev. Yet, Volk doesn't believe a rematch would hold up either division. All the top Lightweight contenders are booked except for Dustin Poirier. Yair Rodriguez just won the Interim Featherweight Title. Volk believes if Yair is ready while both Islam and himself are ready to fight, Yair should defend the Interim title while Volk gets his rematch with Islam. An Interim Title defense would be unprecedented, but Volk brings up a great point. What else would be the purpose of the Interim Champion? It seems like the timing could be perfect. Ariel also asked Volk if he'd be ready to go in May. Volk said he can go whenever. May might be an early return. If he does return to headline UFC 288 in May I believe it'll be against Yair Rodriguez to crown one Undisputed Featherweight Champion as based on Saturday Night Yair probably has a faster recovery time than Makhachev. All in all UFC 284 was a great card with one of the greatest main events I've ever seen. Perth sounded far louder than yesterday's Super Bowl. Personally, I would like to see the rematch after seeing how close that fight actually was, but if we get Volk vs Yair first there'll be fireworks in that fight as well!
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