UFC 284 was a card to remember as the night's action capped off with a historic bout for the Lightweight Championship and World No. 1 pound-for-pound ranking. Champion Islam Makhachev was able to withstand the late onslaught of Alexander Volkanovski and retain his belt by unanimous decision ( 48-47, 48-47, 49-46). All three judges awarded Volkanovski the fifth and final round, with two of three judges also seeing the third round in Volk's favor. It was a much closer fight than anyone had anticipated, so the betting lines in the next matchup between these two will certainly be closer than on Saturday.

Throughout the whole fight, Alexander Volkanovski managed to keep Islam Makhachev backing up and pushing the pace. He was able to stuff many of Makhachev's initial takedowns and get up quickly in situations where he was brought down. Islam went 4-for-9 on his takedown attempts. One of his takedowns in the fourth round led to him controlling Volkanovski's back for nearly half of the round, a sequence that swayed the decision heavily in Makhachev's favor. Still, the optics of the fight showed a different story as Volkanovski dictated the striking pace and landed 164 total strikes to Makhachev's 95. Many fans at home thought the same as they took to Twitter to display their distaste for the decision.

After his UFC 284 loss, Volkanovski was joined in the ring by UFC Legend Michael Bisping to discuss his fight. “He didn't respect my wrestling, grappling,” Volkanovski said, per ESPN. “Maybe I didn't respect his striking enough, either. He landed some shots. Fair play to both of us.”

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Makhachev was able to stun Volkanovski on the feet a few times, with Volk answering each one of those with hard shots of his own. His last knockdown came in the fifth round when he dropped Islam with a right hand and followed it up with ground-and-pound. It was one of the many risks Volkanovski took in this fight, including a few instances where he tried to take Islam down on the cage in the third round.

“It's pretty clear I could have won that fight. That's why I'm hard on myself.”

Volkanovski proved to himself at UFC 284 that defeating Makhachev is possible and was eager to make the rematch immediately following the fight. He was brutally honest in his message indicating a return to the featherweight division when he said, “Featherweights, you better f–king watch out.”