Alexander Volkanovski came all the way to Abu Dhabi to serve as a backup for the UFC 280 lightweight fight between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira. And while in the end both fighters made weight and his services don’t look like they’ll be needed, it sounds like there was a moment the night before weigh-ins that the UFC thought they might need him.
Charles Oliveira weighed in at 154.5 pounds, as did Islam Makhachev. Alexander Volkanovski stepped on the scales at 155 with no problem as he’s used to getting down to 145 pounds. Immediately after weighing in he spoke to BT Sport and revealed there had been concerns someone wasn’t going to make weight.
“Well, without giving too much away, we were asked pretty late last night ‘How’s Alex doing?’” Volkanovski said. “So obviously someone was struggling a bit. But I was asleep when that happened, I heard about it this morning. But, all good.”
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In a poolside interview with The Mac Life a bit later in the day, Alexander Volkanovski shared some more details about what happened.
“I’m pretty sure one of them – I think it’s pretty obvious who it was – might have been struggling,” Volkanovski said. “Looked like it, anyway. And we were checked up on, making sure everything was good on our end. And I’m sure they did that because there’s a chance somebody’s not making the weight. They wouldn’t check up on us for nothing, so someone was struggling.”
“But they probably just did it right, got that last bit off, kept sweating, and jumped on the scale and was a little bit under,” he finished. “It could be a bad weight cut, but you get that last bit off, keep sweating, and you get to the scale and sometimes you’re a little bit under.”
When Volkanovski said it was ‘obvious who it was,’ he’s speaking of Islam Makhachev, who looked pretty drawn and weary on the scale when he weighed in this morning. While Charles Oliveira has had weigh-in issues in the past, the Brazilian fighter actually hit championship weight the night before the weigh-ins, per multiple sources in his camp.
Volkanovski didn’t seem too bothered about not getting to step in at UFC 280. Instead, he’s already looking forward to UFC 284 in Perth, Australia on February 12th. Or, if Charles Oliveira insists on fighting at UFC 283 on January 21st in Rio de Janeiro, he’s ready for that too.
What do you think of Alexander Volkanovski’s theory that someone was having serious trouble making weight? Do you think it was just the UFC double-checking just in case, or was one of the lightweight title contenders on the verge of pulling out? Let us know in the comments!