The thought of facing Islam Makhachev for the second time in a calendar year — once the lightweight champion was booked to rematch Charles Oliveira — did not cross the mind of Alexander Volkanovski.
The UFC never asked the featherweight champion, who underwent surgery on his left arm over the summer, if he was interested in coming to Abu Dhabi to serve as the backup, alternate opponent in case of weigh-in issues torpedoing the 155-pound championship headliner.
“I just thought the chances of me stepping in this just not happening,” Volkanovski told The Post on Wednesday. “I thought if Charles was to get injured or whoever get injured, I thought they’d have a backup. I thought it’d probably be Justin Gaethje. It just didn’t really cross my mind.”
Well, it crossed the minds of the powers that be in the UFC, opening the door for Volkanovski accept without hesitation — 11 days away from the scheduled date — a champion vs. champion rematch just eight months after Makhachev got the better of their lightweight title fight on Volkanovski’s turf in Australia.
Volkanovski’s second — and perhaps final — chance at taking the belt of Makhachev’s waist comes Saturday (2 p.m. Eastern) as the pay-per-view headliner for UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
“I was going in my head and thinking I had to wait till January,” said Volkanovski, referring to his previously targeted return date to defend his 145-pound title. “But, it turns out, I don’t.”
The drawbacks to Volkanovski (26-2, 16 finishes) undertaking the endeavor of trying to defeat the only man to beat him in the last 10 years aren’t hard to spot.
Unorthodox, abbreviated fight preparation? Check.
World-class opponent with the mental edge of having already won the first fight? Check.
Fast-tracked weight cut to hit the mark on the scale, even one 10 pounds heavier than the weight class over which he currently lords? Check.
But Volkanovski is an optimist; if he’s really not, he plays a convincing one on TV.
Barely a fight camp to speak of?
“I’m so fresh because I didn’t have to worry about a fight camp. I didn’t have to physically and mentally exhaust myself,” says the glass-half-full featherweight king, who will have worn his crown for more than four years by the time he puts his belt on the line again — still planned for January. “I get to go into this fresh, excited and almost have fun.”
Conquering Makhachev (24-1, 15 finishes), the only man on the UFC roster with a win over him?
“I guarantee you for him, that felt like a big loss to him as well. He knows that a lot of people in this world think that I won. He knows all that,” said Volkanovski, who defended his own title in July while Makhachev has been idle since winning a competitive but unanimous decision in February’s epic first head-to-head matchup. “So he hasn’t got to go out there and right the wrongs or do anything like that. He hasn’t had a chance to do that. So he has to do that with the same guy that he had massive problems with. There’s a lot of pressure that’s on him.”
Beating the scale and hitting the 155-pound target when, a day before answering opportunity’s knock, he had checked in at about 181 pounds?
“I’m lighter than I was in February at this time [in the weight-cutting process],” Volkanovski, less than 28 hours before weigh-ins, pointed out moments after downing a big swig of water.
That’s not to say Volkanovski is taking the challenge ahead of him lightly. He’s had short fight camps before but concedes, “Nothing ever this short, to be quite honest.”
Most fight camps, the 35-year-old says, are the same. The goal is to steel oneself for the worst, know how to handle adversity and “make sure if you need to go five rounds of war, you can go there.”
“I don’t have time to do that,” Volkanovski acknowledges. “Can I do five rounds? Yeah, 100 percent I can. But I don’t have time to prepare for that.”
Five-battles are old hat for the Aussie. Seven straight times, Volkanovski has competed with championship gold up for grabs and five rounds with which to work. He won six of them, with four going the full 25 minutes and typically picking up steam as the fight rolled on with his all-around game and active striking attack.
That seventh five-rounder, the one against Makhachev? Far from the lightweight champ’s typical steamrolling of foes with his superior grappling game that was forged from a lifetime of training alongside the great Khabib Nurmagomedov, under his late Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
Volkanovski was very much in their February fight in Perth, Australia until the end, sweeping the fifth round on the scorecards and taking the third round on two of three — with rounds 1, 2 and 5 going to Makhachev. Some media members saw as many as three rounds for the home-crowd favorite, though The Post did not, despite a very close second frame.
With plenty of time to review and rehash — and Volkanovski has watched it “a fair few times” — he’s spotted plenty of things he could have done a little differently if given the chance.
“I’ve been able to do that all year, so I know what I need to do,” Volkanovski says. “Yeah, I wasn’t in camp training for this, but my head has been locked in on Islam still, here and there.”
Ever the optimist, Volkanovski adds with a smile “I won every single time” he watches that fight.
Saturday is his chance to make sure, officially, he gets the victory and a second championship, to boot.