Lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev spoke with the press after knocking out Alexander Volkanovski and defending his belt for …
sorry guys make you wait Islam congratulations on a spectacular Victory uh you were throwing the head kick a fair bit throughout the fight is that something that you saw in the game plan that you think You’ be able to stop him with uh honestly I think and my coach told me you have the good head kick and I always try to land the kick when I fought but and on my mind I always thinking when this kick landed you know because I know I kick very well and for the opponent like wowski who little bit short it’s a best plan to you know land it some kick because when you have short opponent easy to land and I just make him made some mistake I show him low kick body kick and change to up you know to head kick this is the plan this is what we did last couple of months this is what we did in the lucky room and very happy yeah it was beautiful um how good does it feel after the first fight was so close all the talk about the decision to come in here and finish him in the first round no controversy really happy to finish him first round because after if it’s happen in Championship round people uh start to talk he’s uh take this five short noce he’s not ready for Championship round but I’m really happy because I finish all these things in the first round well done done all this story with wos it’s finished right now and I know a lot of people maybe think of you as a as a Grappler first but to come out here and finish it with a knockout in the first round do you feel like this proves you are the best fighter in the world right now of course some people underestimated my my striking but I show in the first fight I show that people my striking and I think now people will respect my striking and I just show I not just wrestle Grappler or striker and I know I’m a best fighter best MMA fighter in the world and uh Dana White was in here he got asked about what should be next for you uh he said he likes the idea of Charles Oliva he didn’t say it was 100% but he feels like that’s the fight that probably needs to be run back do you agree that next it’s not my job it’s D it’s have to Dana have to work on this and I just will sign the contract just send me the name but my opinion I’m feel like already I have two opponents Charles okay I will beat Charles who is going to be next gagei he will wait but I don’t think it’s a good idea but it is what it is when they if they say Charles okay if they say Gage it will be okay doesn’t matter I will be ready and uh obviously you took no damage in this fight um do you want to fight again soon I assume you want to fight before Ramadan yeah we have to sit with the team talk about this and make decision thank you Islam right here um Alex has been very active since your last fight you know he fought in uh July and he took this fight on short notice so I’m curious if you were his coach what would you want him to do next would you want him to slow down would you want him to fight in January yeah he have to no January he cannot he have big cut on his eye and uh after this is I know he miss very good kick that’s why he have to take some rest 100% if he smart if his team smart he have to take some couple months rest because uh this is not uh like choke him or like body kick this is a head kick and uh like not just coaches he’s like doctor he’s doctor and his team have to make decision you know before the head kick how do you think the fight was playing out you know I try to take him down it’s not like 100% I go to the double l i I just want to like feel you know I just want to catch him and feel his power and uh you know when he when we go to the clinch he use too much power I take his head and for moving from there he used too much power I feel that you know in the clinch I uh landed a couple good needs couple good punch and you know this is my plan before the fight thinking I will a little bit working with him in the standing like clinch something like that and I’ve you know before the fight we make the plan we have to kick him a lot because this guy short we have to kick him a lot uh keep him in the distance because he really good on this he really good to close distance you know to the keeping in distance you have to use l kicks I think my opinion I did 100% plan what we just prepare for him and I know you said you don’t pick who you fight but are there locations you would like to fight would you like to fight in Las Vegas would you like to fight here again in Abu Dhabi would you go to Canada like where would you like to fight uh USA is good for me because I have Team there AKA I can prepare there and doesn’t matter where of Canada or I don’t know we can make in Australia too but in Australia they have to change the time they have to give the fighters the time usually which one they have that’s it last just one more just one more in the cage in your postf fight interview you had some very powerful words about kind of world peace and some certain certain things going on why did you feel it was important to use your platform tonight to speak on these things uh you know first of all because all my like last month all my Camp I watched the video I watched the story about the situation what happened in the Palestine and sect and make me very sad you know because the people in the Palestine or sect they don’t have nothing they close them and attack them every day they not kill something terrorist or some like people they kill the kids old people you know this is a crazy what happened now in the sector Gaza and Palestine and just I want to send the message stand with Palestine we with you and that’s it one more in the front right here uh Usman magov obviously had a big win not too long ago at Bellator if Bellator ceases to exist and he have would you like to see who in the UFC yeah I think he’s a high level fighter you know he very smart and he really know his job you know he very good on the Striking he how he move how he uh control the distance he very good and I think he will be in the top in the UFC of course he not come to take my belt he will wait but he’s a young he’s a he can be next if he came to the UFC would that mean you would think about going up to welterweight to leave the lightweight division for him yeah you know uh he have to finish his job in Bellator and when he come to UFC he will show he will show our school level because our division in the team very strong I have us AMU Shar jko like many guys who give me hard time in the cage sag gaj like I don’t know how many maybe I forget like many guys but the all people who give me hard time in the cage and uh iron sharp iron you know that’s why we have like higher level fighter in my division Salam alaykum Islam Salam congratulations on the win thank you uh Islam Dana White has indicated on two occasions uh over this week that he wants to take the UFC to Qatar and to Egypt and also to Saudi Arabia uh knowing that and we spoke about this in the in the pre-fight conference knowing that you have so many fans in all of these countries and across the Middle East and North Africa even if you’re not competing in these events where the UFC is going would you be looking to partic participate to give your fans in all these different countries the UFC is going an opportunity to meet you and interact with you uh yeah I saw the news and then I say we will make some in Middle East somewhere but you know it’s like my second home you know I know in the Qatar or some other country like the people waiting for me or some some like not just me you know some Muslim fighter because they Muslim country you know if they make the event there I just will be happy to fight there because when Arena support you it’s a good energy always one more question for me Islam in all of those countries as you indicated they’re waiting for for a Muslim fighters to come and represent them in all of these countries as well as the UAE there are so many Arab fighters who are doing everything they can to try to get to the UFC level and you’re a big inspiration to them what words would you give the local Fighters here in the UAE and all these uh Arab and North African countries so that they can reach the level of success that you’ve that you’ve reached you know they have to training really hard we we training when we was you know born in the dagistan you can come and open some gym they all full like kids very hungry want to be fighter before they all training wrestling but now it’s crazy they change to MMA you know everybody want to be MMA fighters you know and I think it’s new generation is D from dagistan it’s going to be higher level I think now it’s my opinion just send the people to our gym to our Republic dagistan leave them like five six one year if they want to be Champion if they want to be like high level Fighters they have to spend time there they have to leave in the gym you know and or bring here some coaches some team you know because I told iron sharp iron they have to training with some good opponents always thank you Islam congratulations again thank you so much Isam over uh you mentioned how you feel Charles maybe you’ll fight anyone but Charles maybe not a good idea if that was the fight would it be hard for you to be motivated considering like with volkanovski first fight was close Al Vera you finished him the first fight you know when you have rematch it’s like same when you exactly same opponent you’re training like you did the same camp you know not make you happy with training last couple months for the same opponent and I told the interview like you know in the when they make the interview in Dubai I told them hey I have the same feeling last year I was here in the same gym same team you know but when when you prepare for some new opponents it’s it’s different you know and you become good fighter when you be training for other opponent because every other opponent have something more something different but when you’re uh training for same opponent it’s like you stay in one level you know and do you see a rematch with Charles going any different do you feel like he would pose something it’s not going to be different I will show him and I will feel him the hard time he will give up and I will choke him or finish him thank you I asked volovski at the press conference on Wednesday whether or not he knows that he’s going to be fighting with a different stronger Islam Mev what about you when you fought him this time did you feel like you were fighting a different vul did he have different type of power or was his power the same as W and full training camp uh UFC for you know to be honest uh maybe this is time now that I should say it I didn’t want to say it before but there was a lot of things in Australia that weren’t okay I wasn’t okay with a lot of things there a lot of things that didn’t go the way that I wanted them to go and I didn’t I wasn’t comfortable with a lot of things I just didn’t want to make any excuses I didn’t want people to say oh he wins but he’s still making excuses but maybe now is the time to say it well first of all I Was preparing for ala for for four months and then right after that we had to go to Australia it was really basically went from the cage after fighting ala to prepare right away for volkanovski it was pretty hard for me we had to go to the mountains and train in the mountains and we got to Australia finally 20 days before the fight and the fact that they made the the tournament in the morning that was uh that was that was completely uncomfortable for me and I don’t want to say you know about kilograms or Pounds or whatever who weighted how much but they were telling me you know how much you weighed how much he weigh how much I weigh how much he weighed so the the weight was you know different it just there wasn’t enough time for me to recover the proper way because of the way that they they had that that fight going that fight going so early and he he didn’t have that type of thing you know he didn’t have to to to worry about it I felt his power you know even though he came in on such a short notice I felt his power when we got in the clinch basically uh he with his power unhooked the L because he was so strong so I didn’t feel like he didn’t recover back to his power I felt his power and it was the same you know you said that there’s a possibility that you would go up to welterweight and and fight for the belt there let’s say that you do get the belt in welterweight then what do you just say that there’s no competition for you because you’re going to go back to lightweight and who do you going to who are you going to fight there would you say that if you get that second belt there’s just nobody to fight you you know to be honest I think in my way there’s uh there’s who else iser to fight F in my weight I mean everybody in my weight have fought each other kind of and they all have you know wins and losses what’s going to happen who who Who’s going to fight let’s say porier goes up he’s gonna he’s going to get a win he’s going to get a loss so am I going to fight I mean I don’t know who who else is there but if I go up to welterweight you know I feel like there’s a there might be a chance that I’ll stick around there for a little while I think there’s going to be good competition there new fights new opponent so we’ll see what happen [Music] for question for you about uh the the weigh-ins and the and the we cutting process don’t you think that uh in Pros it’s a little bit of a faulty process because you get to you get to cut you know 20 kgs or whatever how many kgs you go down you do it 36 hours or 30 hours or 24 hours before the fight and then people uh kind of lose a lot of strength because they they cut so much weight whether in in amateurs or in boxing they weigh in the day of the fight you know and so probably they’re just uh cutting about five kgs or something like that and they pretty much come out at the way that they that they walk around so do you think that there’s a way that uh the pros can borrow that from the amateurs and from boxing that there’s not that much weight being [Music] cut [Music] for you know I don’t think that I would uh feel comfortable at at 70 kgs I would probably just uh just move up because I don’t think I would have my my full potential at at that weight I would just have to go up uh but if you if you look at the entire division you know who who doesn’t cut weight I mean like if you look at all the guys I just saw gagei back there he looks huge you know most of the guys are cutting a whole bunch of weight so so I don’t know if uh if that would be for me I think I would just have to move up to a higher [Music] [Music] weight uh the question was did you uh congratulations with the Victory and uh khabib wasn’t here today would you think it would be nice to have him there and have you heard from him and uh has he said anything and sent you a message yet and the answer is uh yes the second and I got my phone I had a message from khabib and just now we’re also texting to each other and uh you know he’s a he’s a man of his word if he said he’s not going to be here he’s not going to be here but I I’m really thankful to him that he was here he was here for an entire month he was training with us so that already means a lot to me Islam if it’s not a secret what did he say to you was it like wow or did you just just say something like congratulations on the victory nor should you know we didn’t have too much time to uh to text each other but but he said uh you you’re you’re the bomb and you’re uh you’re great congratulations little one and uh and good job and not [Music] for you were talking to Alex filanowski in the cage after the fight what did you tell him uh and I said to him that uh I paid my respects I I gave my thanks I mean there’s there’s other guys that were an option you know whether it was gamad or whether it was parier but if you think about them uh you know it’s a different level volkanovski is a whole different level he took the fight at short notice he came out he had the fight wasn’t bad you know the fight wasn’t lost and if anything the fight was even better so uh you know I said Thank you to him I said Thank you to his coaches uh he’s a he’s a real Warrior he’s a man of his W and thank just thanked him and showed him my respect he’s last time you fought in Australia everybody was against you this time you’re fighting in Abu Dhabi and the entire arena is for you uh can you tell us what motivates you more whether it’s the booze or the cheers and where is it easier to fight AB I mean the easiest way would probably to be to fight in Moscow and St Petersburg because you know you do the whole camp at home you you just fly over and you do the fight over there but uh but of course it’s great to fight somewhere where the entire arena is cheering for you you know this is not too bad for me as well this is not too far away from me when it comes to uh jet leg or climatization it’s not hard because there’s only one uh one hour uh time difference so you know of course it was great over here and I think when the entire arena is is roaring for you obviously motivates you but it also I think affects the the judges because any punch that you throw you you know every fan goes crazy whether you just whis by his head or whatever but people go crazy and there was the same thing in Australia I think you know he was throwing some things and every time he threw something out the entire crowd was reacting and I was even doubting myself I was saying like did I did I miss a punch or something why is there going crazy like that so I’m pretty sure it has an effect on you one of the very interesting parts that happened in the fight was when you uh when you pushed lonowski up against the cage he actually had enough power to turn you around and kind of take control of that so uh what did you think about that and second of all do you think that you have enough strength to uh to actually fight in welterweight with with other guys being that much bigger [Music] for yeah to be honest I think that volkanovski is the most powerful guy in his division he has to be the the strongest and most powerful guy in his Division and when it came to you know him turning me around in the cage that wasn’t a problem to me because in any position in the clinch I have an advantage of him because he’s a little bit shorter than me so you know I was I feel felt very comfortable look at how many knees I landed look at how many many punches I landed in the clinch you know I was kind of hanging on him because I was able to kind of lean over on him so that was that was the whole game plan to kind of feel him out you know clinch him see what we can do from there and you know I I did go for a taked down but it wasn’t like a fullon committed double leg it was more of like just to show him that and then go to the body after that because the I I I felt like I had advantage in in all the positions you’re finally in a place in your career where you’re making really great money so you know maybe if we go about four years ago you’re thinking about finally making this money there every fighter has a dream of of getting something maybe it’s something for his parents or maybe it’s something for for the family uh what about you if we if we take the last year was there anything significant something specific that you would like to mention that you were able to acquire for you know to be honest there there was a goal that I’ve achieved quite a little bit of time ago uh my goal was to uh to help my parents out my parents have worked their entire life uh as long as I can remember my my father was a driver and my mother was a waitress they worked from 6:00 in the morning all way up until the night and they they worked to make sure that me and my brother never long for anything that were able to do what we want so we have a good life and so my goal was to achieve that to make sure that they can finally get the rest to kind of for all those years that they worked to just rest and not have to work anymore and so that’s what I did you know this is something that I achieved a little while ago and to be honest uh thank God for everything because uh I don’t need anything in my life I have a house I have a car I have a a wonderful family so you know everything’s great everything thanks to God and you know it’s not like I want to buy something or if I need something specific you know I I don’t long for anything to be honest and and to be honest it’s not about the money you know a lot of the people that are rich they’re not happy don’t think that just because you have money you’re going to be happy it’s not about [Music] that uh you look a little bit tired obviously you know you’ve been asked a lot of questions so uh can you let us know when you thinking about coming back to the gym and when you do what do you think your first uh training session will look like and the answer is uh you know I’m not sure when I’m going to get back just because uh as long I’m sitting here my my leg is hurting more and more I can feel it so you know I’m have to figure out what that is and then once I once I make it back to the gym it’s going to be you know business as usual first uh first practice is going to be rugby and uh you know maybe some wrestling and and then uh you know we’ll go from there thank you guys you did the hardest job in this game thanks so much really appreciate