Respected MMA coach Ray Longo isn't exactly excited about the upcoming rematch between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira.

It was recently announced that Makhachev would defend his lightweight title against Oliveira in the UFC 294 headliner taking place Oct. 21 in Abu Dhabi.

Makhachev won the title by defeating Oliveira in Abu Dhabi last year with a second-round submission victory in a fight that wasn't all that close by any means.

However, Oliveira has since bounced back with a first-round TKO win over Beneil Dariush with his team guaranteeing that a second fight will look very different after the Brazilian had an off day the first time around.

Longo, however, is not too convinced and would have rather watched someone else like Alexander Volkanovski get a second crack at the Dagestan native.

“Unfortunately I think it’s the same problem we have with a lot of divisions,” Longo said in a recent episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast (via MMA Junkie). “I think Charles could beat everybody but this guy. Honestly, I haven’t thought about, I think it’s the same fight.

“Maybe a minute longer or whatever, but I think it’s the exact same fight and I don’t know, for some reason I’m not even excited about the fight. I would have rather have seen somebody else in there.”

All that said, Longo is willing to give “Do Bronx” the benefit of the doubt, especially if he really did have an off night the first time he fought Makhachev.

Longo pointed to how his own pupil in current UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling had an off night against Petr Yan before enjoying a much better performance in the rematch.

“After the first Yan fight, remember Aljo (Sterling) said he didn’t eat right, for whatever reason,” Longo explained. “He’s been in the game a long time but maybe it was the main event, the timing of the nutrients was wrong, but I remember sitting down with him months later going, ‘Are you telling me the truth?’ Because if you’re not telling the truth, we’ve got to make some corrections.

“But if you are telling me the truth, that you didn’t really feel good, then it’s a different story. We can go, well I like what I saw, and he said, ‘I swear to God, I’m really telling you the truth.’ So, if Oliveira is saying the same thing and his coaches had a talk with him and it’s really true, then it’s a different fight.”

Given that Oliveira's coach stated they never really implemented the game plan they had in mind, perhaps we really will see a different fight this time around.