Add Category
Last time, Alex Volkanovski gave himself months to prepare to scale the mountain that is Russia's Islam Makhachev. This time, if he wants to win a UFC title in a second weight division and cement his place as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, he's got 11days.
Eleven days to scale the mountain of Dagestan. Eleven days to get ready for a fight that could secure his place in combat sports immortality. Eleven days to prepare for the fight of his life. It's hardly any time at all.
Pick up some milk during your big shop this weekend and it'll still be good to put on your cereal when the two men lock horns early next Sunday morning (AEDST) at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi.
Volkanovski's decision to step in for injured title challenger Charles Olivieria has accelerated what all fight fans knew was coming.
After Makhachev snuck home by a narrow decision victory in Perth in February, a rematch between the UFC's lightweight and featherweight champions was always going to happen.
How could it not after five rounds of incredibly high-level MMA action where Volkanovski was surprised by Makhachev's striking, Makhachev was surprised by Volkanovski's wrestling defence and the fight finished with the Australian roaring home before falling just short on the judges scorecards?
It was a victory for Makhachev but hardly a decisive one and it felt more like the start of something than the end. Volkanovski's stock in defeat seemingly rose more than Makhachev's did in victory and the spectre of another showdown hung over the Australian's victory over Mexico's Yair Rodriqguez in July.
On that night, Volkanovski delivered a comprehensive beatdown en route to a third round knockout. It was devastating, brutal and precise but also perfunctory. There are challenges for Volkanovski in his natural weight class — a January clash with top contender Ilia Topuria was slated for January and it would have been the Windang man's greatest challenge for some time in the division he has ruled for years – but Makhachev is something different.
It's not just about winning a second belt, although doing so would allow Volkanovski to enter the conversation regarding the best UFC fighters of all time, and it's not just that Makhachev, the latest heir of the Dagestani tradition of drowning men out on the mat under a relentless barrage of hard-nosed, brutal grappling, is counted as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Makhachev, who boasts a 24-1 record and handed Volkanovski his first loss in a decade, is the Australian's white whale, his fire in the sun. All other challenges were simply a road that led back to Makhachev and to a chance at revenge.
Everything else — like title challenges and the riches and prestige that comes with them — were things Volkanovski wants but a victory over Makhachev is something he needs.
That's why he's accepted on eleven days notice and just three months after undergoing hand surgery. Waiting until the time was right might have been the more cautious and cunning move but the fact Volkanovski has not is proof of how badly he wants this chance. It means he will forgo just about every one of the advantages he had in the first fight.
This won't be on home soil but in Abu Dhabi, where Makhachev enjoys a strong following. Instead of having a full training camp to acclimatise to Makhachev's skill set and to reform his body to the demands of a higher weight class, Volkanovski has a week and change.
The shortest notice replacement to win a UFC title is Michael Bisping, who shocked the world with his knockout of Luke Rockhold in 2016 to claim middleweight gold after accepting the fight 17 days before. It was herculean. What Volkanovski is trying to do is beyond that again.
If he pulls it off it will rank among the most impressive feats in the history of not just the UFC and not just in Australian combat sports but in Australian sport overall and there's just enough breadcrumbs showing the way along his path to victory to think it can be done.
Makhachev won the opening rounds of their first encounter but Volkanovski fared better the longer the fight progressed. He's pointed out that, in those early exchanges, he underestimated how his prodigious strength would hold up against the Dagestani's wrestling.
The way a fight ends doesn't always tell the story of the bout but it's impossible to forget how Volkanovski dropped Makhachev with a minute to go in the final round and rained blows upon him as the bell sounded.
It's an image that sticks in the mind of every witness of the fight. Imagine how it must be if you were right in the middle and felt the dominance of that moment, only to lose it when the cards were read out moments later.
For a fighter as single-minded and mentally strong as Volkanovski it must have been close to torture, to all but taste victory only to be denied its spoils, so it should not surprise that Volkanovski will jump at the chance of revenge, even if the circumstances are not ideal.
If he waited he still might have got this chance, if he loses he will likely not get another chance at Makhachev and everything that can be against him is against him, but Volkanovski is not the champion for waiting and succeeding against the odds is how glory is made and how fighters, through defiance of those odds, go on to live forever.
Makhachev is perhaps the finest MMA fighter in the world and men who have spent their whole lives preparing for the moment they face him have come undone. Volkanovski has 11 days. It is not much but because he is Alex Volkanovski it might be all he needs.