Alexander Volkanovski says he’s going to Dagestan, and Islam Makhachev will be his guide. In comments to TMZ Sports that circulated on X on Saturday, the UFC featherweight champion said the two have already discussed the trip and insisted it isn’t idle talk.
“I love the idea of Islam Makhachev, doing it with him. We’ve already even chatted about it,” Volkanovski said.
The plan he sketched out is about as far from a press tour as you can get. “So I’m going to go to Dagestan, in the mountains, horseback hunting, hunting on horseback, catching whatever we catch and then cooking it,” he said, before doubling down: “I’m telling you, it’s going to happen. We’re going to do it.”
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The history between them makes the invitation land a little differently. Volkanovski went up to lightweight twice to challenge Makhachev, then the 155-pound champion, and lost both times. The first fight was competitive. The rematch came on short notice and ended early in Makhachev’s favor. He’s 0-2 in title fights at lightweight, and both losses came against the man now planning to put him on a horse.
Before any of that, Volkanovski has a job on Oct. 24. He headlines UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi against Movsar Evloev, who is 20-0, and a ninth successful defense would move him past Jose Aldo for the most in UFC featherweight history. He told the Who The Fook Are These Guys podcast that he expects Evloev to try to grab him and hold him down, and that he plans to force the fight on the feet instead. “I think we get a finish, boys. I really do,” he said.
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He’s also floated a champion-versus-champion idea for later. On the same podcast, Volkanovski pitched a lightweight title fight with Justin Gaethje, who won the belt by finishing Ilia Topuria at UFC White House in June, as a send-off for both men before letting the divisions sort themselves out. The UFC hasn’t named Gaethje’s next challenger, with Arman Tsarukyan coming off a first-round knockout of Mauricio Ruffy and Charles Oliveira facing Diego Lopes on Dec. 12.
Makhachev has his own fight on the horizon against Carlos Prates. Jean Silva told MMA Fighting he likes his teammate’s power, saying, “The moment he lands his hand, the fight is over.” Oliveira, posted on X by @DovySimuMMA, suggested Ian Garry gave Prates a blueprint with kicks to the ribs and calves, and that Prates has what he needs if Makhachev doesn’t finish him in the first two rounds.
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My take: this is the best kind of fight-world friendship, the kind that gets built after the gloves come off and has nothing to sell. Volkanovski could have spent the last stretch of his career relitigating the short-notice rematch. Instead he’s asking to see the mountains that produced the man who beat him, on that man’s terms, eating what they hunt. I hope someone brings a camera and I hope nobody turns it into content. First, though, Evloev, Abu Dhabi, Oct. 24.
