Alexander Volkanovski's audacious bid to win a UFC lightweight title on less than two weeks' notice has failed as he was spectacularly knocked out by champion Islam Makhachev in the first round of their rematch in Abu Dhabi. 

Makhachev landed some good kicks and knee blows before a devastating left leg kick to the head floored the 35-year-old Australian.

The blow opened up a cut on Volknaovski's head and a few seconds of ground and pound from Makhachev prompted referee Marc Goddard to stop the fight at the 3:06 mark of the first round this morning.

"It's hard, I don't like losing. It hurts me, but he's a great champion," UFC featherweight champion Volkanovski said.

Volkanovski, who was a late replacement for injured former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, wasn't able to land a significant strike and was on the back foot from the start.

"I showed him first a couple of low kicks and body kicks and I changed to a high kick," Makhachev said.

"This is an old plan what we trained the last couple of months for Oliveira and nothing changed for Volkanovski.

"But I want to say thank you to this guy, he's a real champion. I told you you have to turn off the lights to defeat this guy."

Volkanovski, from Windang on the NSW South Coast, said he wanted to stay busy and defend his featherweight title in January, most likely against Ilia Topuria.

In an emotional post-fight press conference, Volkanovski revealed the mental toll of downtime between fights.

"A lot of people will say it's for the money and all that, but it was much more than that," he said.

"It really is hard for athletes. I never thought I'd struggle with it. For some reason when I wasn't fighting or in camp ... I was just doing my head in.

"I don't how, I've got a beautiful family, but I dunno … you just need to keep busy."

In the co-main event, Khamzat Chimaev improved to 13-0, scoring a majority points win over former welterweight world champion Kamaru Usman in a middleweight bout.

However, Chimaev, who is expected to challenge middleweight champion Sean Strickland, thought he might have suffered a broken hand during the bout.

ABC/AAP