UFC 294: How Alex Volkanovski accepted late-notice fight against Islam Makhachev

Fighting was the furthest thing from his mind when Alex Volkanovski was met with an offer he couldn’t refuse, writes BRENDAN BRADFORD.

22 JUNE, 2023: UFC fighter Alex Volkanovski at the Freestyle Fighting Gym, Windang south of Wollongong ahead of their major UFC fight in Las Vegas on July 9/2023. Picture: Simon Bullard

Alex Volkanovski was holding his newborn daughter, Reign, and sitting next to wife, Emma last Wednesday morning when his phone rang.

On the other end of the line was his manager, Ash Belcastro.

Just months after surgery, six weeks on from the birth of his third daughter and three months after his most recent featherweight title defence, Volkanovski assumed it was just a standard call.

“I was at the house and I think I was trying to settle my newborn and I got a phone call,” he says. “It was my manager, and he just said, ‘You’re not going to believe it…’”

Just hours earlier, Charles Oliveira had pulled out of his scheduled lightweight title fight with Islam Makhachev with a bad cut over his eye.

The UFC desperately needed a late-notice replacement, and considering Volkanovski’s phenomenal performance against Makhachev at UFC 284 in February, UFC matchmaker Hunter Campbell gave Belcastro a call.

At that time, Belcastro wasn’t even sure Volkanovski wanted the fight.

“He just said, ‘You’re probably not going to worry about this, but I’ve gotta do my job’,” Volkanovski says. “Then literally in a couple of seconds, we thought, ‘Yep, we’re gonna do this’ and he said, ‘OK’, and went and did his part, talking to Hunter and doing negotiations.”

Meanwhile, Volkanovski handed Reign to Emma and hit the phones, assembling his world class team of coaches and training partners for an 11-day preparation.

It was like something out of the Avengers, as Volkanovski looks to turn the tables on Makhachev eight months after dropping a controversial decision to the Dagestani.

“The first one I called was Joe (coach Joe Lopez), because he’s out of the country,” Volkanovski says. “I talked to him and made sure he was OK with it. He said, ‘Yep, let’s do it, we’re all in’.

“So that was my first call. Then it was one of the lads at the gym, Colby Thicknesse. I told him we’re gonna have to rally some of the boys at the gym for a meat grinder because I’m fighting Islam next week.

“He was like, ‘Wow, sweet, let’s do it’, and we went from there.

“I did a fight simulator (that day), and I literally organised it because Joe is away. I just hit up the lads at the gym and they came through and we did the fight simulator. That’s how quickly it came together.”

As the news was breaking that Volkanovski was stepping in on just 11 days’ notice, his jiu-jitsu coach, Craig Jones was already at the airport, ready to fly to Sydney for preparations. Wrestling coach Frank Hickman was also on his way.

Rather than doubts or second thoughts, Volkanovski says everyone on his team was immediately ready to jump in for the late-notice title fight.

“There might have been a couple of people trying to play devil’s advocate,” he says. “A couple who maybe said something like, ‘Make sure the paycheck is all right’.

“But everyone’s just excited. Some of them were like, ‘What??’ but with a massive smile on their face. It didn’t even look like they were nervous, just like me.

“A lot of people would’ve been like, ‘What are you doing?’ but it just shows you where our heads are at. We’re excited.”

Originally published as UFC 294: How Alex Volkanovski accepted late-notice fight against Islam Makhachev