UFC 294: Islam Makhachev dismisses Alexander Volkanovski’s chances and claims ‘he's just come to make money’

Islam Makhachev has dismissed Alexander Volkanovski’s chances of taking his lightweight title, when the duo headline the card at UFC 294 - live on TNT Sports.

The Australian was a late replacement for Charles Oliveira, who suffered an eye injury during sparring and forced to pull out of the fight.

After beating Volkanovski in February, the defending champion is confident about toppling the 35-year-old once again in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

“He's just come to make money, he's not brought his belt,” said Makhachev in the pre-fight press conference.

“I have, I've put my winning streak and my belt here. Before I came here, he was never going to be the champion in my division.”

Those suggestions were unsurprisingly dismissed by the current featherweight champion, who said that his previous defeat to the Russian was still a huge source of frustration.

“I want to avenge my losses, I didn't get my hand raised and that hurts me,” Volkanovski said.

“Now I have to do it on 12 days’ notice and I'm okay with that, I accept that and I'm ready to put on a show.”

Volkanovski spoke in more detail about what fans can expect from him on the night, and believes it was fate which brought him into the fight at such late notice.

“There’s going to be fireworks,” he said. “It’s no secret and I’m sure he knows that I’m going to be going in for the kill. They’re going to expect me to be coming in aggressive.

“They’re going to know that I’m not going to show him as much respect. I don’t need to hide the fact that I’m coming for him because I’m going to be in his face.”

When addressing the late notice in more detail, he added: “Like we said when we talk high-risk, high-reward, all these things add to that story.

“Add to that ending to that rivalry and you know what I mean, it was all meant to be.

“It was meant to be me coming here on 12 days' notice for the rematch against Islam. Knocking him out with his home-crowd advantage, with all the odds stacked against me and we’re going to get it done.

"We’re going to make a movie about it.”

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