Alexander Volkanovski still views his first clash with Islam Makhachev as one of the defining moments of his career, even in defeat.
Speaking in a recent interview with ENGAGE, Volkanovski reflected on his razor-close decision loss to Makhachev at UFC 284 in February 2023 in Perth, Western Australia. At the time, Volkanovski was the reigning UFC featherweight champion and moved up to lightweight to challenge Makhachev for the 155-pound title in a champion-versus-champion superfight.
Although he ultimately dropped a competitive unanimous decision, the bout was widely hailed as an instant classic and one of the highest-level fights in recent memory.
“Even though I didn’t win that first fight in Perth, what did I gain from fighting Islam? He’s very high level, and no one’s really pushed into that level,” Volkanovski said. “Well, we know how good Islam is to this day. Look what he’s doing.”
Makhachev has since vacated the lightweight title and moved up to welterweight, where he now holds the 170-pound belt. Volkanovski, meanwhile, regained the featherweight championship last year after briefly losing it.
Looking back, Volkanovski said he always understood the magnitude of the challenge in front of him. “I knew he was that good,” he said. “Me moving up against a guy that’s got that style, everyone thought there’s no way [I could beat him]. So for me to go out there and do what I did (and a lot of people thinking I won) and just having that type of fight, me still being pound-for-pound No. 1 was still crazy for us.”
The event was also a commercial success, breaking Australian records for gate, attendance, and pay-per-view metrics. Volkanovski said the scale of the moment elevated its importance in his career narrative.
“We broke records here in Australia, when you’re talking numbers and gates and pay-per-views here in Australia, everything like that,” he said. “It was a massive fight. It lived up to the hype and the storyline. Everything around it was just incredible and a very, very big part of my legacy.”
Despite suffering a knockout loss in their rematch later that year (a fight he accepted on extremely short notice) Volkanovski maintains that the first meeting in Perth stands as one of his proudest achievements.
“Even though I lost, I still think it’s probably the biggest moment or one of the biggest moments of my career,” he said.
