Khabib Nurmagomedov thinks Alexander Volkanovski is a "tougher" matchup than Charles Oliveira - but insists it won't make much difference against Islam Makhachev.
Newly-crowned lightweight king Makhachev will defend his 155lb belt against featherweight champion Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 284 at RAC Arena on February 12.
What has Khabib Nurmagomedov said about Islam Makhachev vs Alexander Volkanovski?
The Russian ripped the lightweight title from Oliveira's clutches last month with a stunning second-round submission at UFC 280, a result his head coach Nurmagomedov believes he'll replicate Down Under against Volkanovski.
“I told Islam like even before last fight with Charles Oliveira, I told him, ‘Volkanovski is gonna be tougher than Charles Oliveira,'” he said during an appearance at Class A Events.
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“Like, before the fight because it was like if Charles don’t make weight, it’s going to be Volkanovski who is supposed to fight with him.
"I think he have good experience. Of course experience – Charles and Volkanovski, they have the same. They both have good experience.
"But if you talk about fighting IQ and big heart, I think Volkanovski’s better than him. I think Volkanovski is gonna be tougher opponent for Islam than Charles Oliveira. But, anyways, who cares? We’re gonna finish this guy.”
Islam Makhachev is the current UFC lightweight champion
How good is Alexander Volkanovski?
Very good. Very good indeed.
So good, in fact, that he was recently recognised as the best MMA fighter in the world in the UFC's official pound-for-pound rankings following his spectacular victory over Max Holloway.
And according to his Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach Craig Jones, they are working on every little detail to try and achieve the perfect result.
He previously said: “I think Makhachev’s grappling is superior to what a lot of the traditional jiu jitsu guys did because they don’t know how to hold someone down.
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"They have no idea how to do it.
“So we really got to reverse engineer what Makhachev’s doing, which I’ve been trying to do on talk, and I’m trying to teach these guys how to do it so I can practice doing it.
“A lot of safe ways to get up, heists, switches. Obviously I’m working on it in open space. Volkanovski is already really good against the fence to get up, but obviously tough it’s very hard work to start in that deep of him."
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