Pre-Fight Previews: UFC 294

UFC 294 was supposed to hold the rematch of Charles Oliveria vs Islam Makhachev as well as Paulo Costa vs Khamzat Chimaev. Just over a week before the event was set to take place, both Oliveira and Costa pulled out of their fights. Costa had an infection and Oliveria was injured during a spar in his training camp. In replacement, Dana White has called up two of the most dangerous men on the planet, Alexander Volkanovski and Kamaru Usman.

Makhachev is the current lightweight champion, having beaten Charles Oliveria to win the belt last October. Since then, he has only fought once and that was against his new opponent, Volkanovski. It was a close brawl where the judges awarded Islam the win. Before he won the belt, he had faced off against Dan Hooker, Drew Dober and Bobby Green and dispatched them all, holding a record of 24-1 in the UFC.

Conversely, Volkanovski is the featherweight champion. He has defended his belt 6 times and fought off some formidable opponents to retain his championship. He has beaten Max Holloway 3 times and defeated Yair Rodriguez and Brian Ortega in a fearless competition where Volkanovski showed unreal grit to get out of Ortega’s mounted guillotine and triangle.

One of the fights of the year was in February, the last time these two fought. It was in a 5 round war that took place in Perth, Australia the homeland of Volk with the crowd well and truly behind him, making for a feisty affair. Both fighters surprised each other, Islam with his impressive striking and timing and Volkanovski with his grappling and takedown defence up against one of the best in the business. In the end, it went the distance, being decided by the judge's scorecards. By unanimous decision, Islam kept a hold of his belt and denied Alex the chance to become a two-weight division champion. Toward the end of the fight, Islam showed that he could not keep up with the pace and intensity of Volkanovski. Makhachev looked sloppy and extremely tired whilst carrying his weight around in the championship rounds but did just enough to secure his first title defence.

 Volkanovski has come in late to this fight with just 11 days of preparation, but his high level of intensity will favour him if he can get the fight to go the distance again. Islam is extremely dangerous and has the skill set to submit anyone within an instant, whereas Volk doesn’t necessarily have the power to end a fight quickly. He will need to ensure that this second fight stays on the feet and has the chance to do so having showcased some brilliant takedown defence in their last confrontation.

The co-main event is Khamzat Chimaev vs Kamaru Usman. Kamaru is the former welterweight champion, before losing his last two fights to Leon Edwards who delivered a devastating head kick in the final round of their fight on UFC 278 to end Usman's reign over the division. He defended his belt 5 times, twice against Colby Covington, twice against Jorge Masvidal and against Gilbert Burns.

Khamzat Chimaev has not fought in over a year, his last fight being Kevin Holland who he rag-dolled and beat in just 2 minutes. In a bloody and exhausting battle, he also beat Gilbert Burns on the scorecards. He is one of the most exciting up-and-coming fighters on the roster and this contest has all the ingredients you need to make a huge fighting spectacle.

Both of these men are elite wrestlers, and Kamaru has the best takedown defence of any fighter in the UFC (who has faced over 20 takedown attempts) with a 97.3% takedown defence success rate. Chimaev’s offensive striking is better with 7.3 strikes landed per minute compared to 4.46 from Usman. On the other hand, his striking defence is worse, absorbing 3.98 strikes per minute compared to 2.75 from Usman. Kamaru is no slouch at striking though, as he ferociously put Masvidal to sleep at UFC 261. He likes to wear guys down in the clinch, yet against Khamzat this might be difficult as he will be two inches shorter, meaning he won't be able to lean on him as much.

Edwards exposed a weakness in Kamaru’s game, where he will often duck his head as a big strike comes in, leaving him open for a knee through the middle or a correctly timed uppercut to do significant damage. This could be something we see Khamzat try to exploit in this fight, or the Nigerian Nightmare might have learned from his previous experiences. This is a massively intriguing matchup concocted by Dana White which could have some interesting ripple effects.

Both of these fights are too close to call, but who do you think will come out on top?

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