{"id":339655,"date":"2023-10-19T00:32:01","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T00:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=339655"},"modified":"2023-10-19T01:01:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T01:01:10","slug":"volkanovski-laughs-off-rivals-hotel-intimidation-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=339655","title":{"rendered":"Volkanovski laughs off rival's hotel 'intimidation' act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alexander Volkanovski<\/a> laughed off attempts by Islam Makhachev's<\/a> "intimidation" tactics when they crossed paths while staying at the same hotel ahead of Sunday morning's fight.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters at UFC 294<\/a> media day, Volkanovski dismissed the narrative pushed by the lightweight champ, who claimed Volkanovski has nothing to lose given it's Makhachev's lightweight title on the line, not Volkanovski's featherweight belt. <\/p>\n

The Dagestani fighter also claims the Aussie already has a built-in excuse to lose because he took the fight on 12 days notice.<\/p>\n

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Volkanovski was preparing to fly in as a guest to watch UFC 294, instead he'll now have a chance to become just the fourth man to simultaneously hold two different UFC belts, joining Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

"This whole 'nothing to lose' talk is silly," Volkanovski said. "Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of pressure on Islam, and I understand that, but I have to take this rematch that I want so bad \u2013 this lightweight title, and we talk about legacy. If I were to lose, my legacy takes a big hit.<\/p>\n

"I don't get another shot at him. I don't get another shot at the lightweight title. You know what I mean? Like, how much longer do I have? We don't know these things.<\/p>\n

"There's definitely a lot to lose for me. I think he takes a big hit with a loss to his legacy, losing to someone who's the featherweight champ, a division below, coming on 12 days' notice.<\/p>\n

"Again, there's a lot of pressure on him. No pressure on me. I'm not letting in the pressure, but there's still a lot to lose for me."<\/p>\n

The day before the official press conference, Volkanovski and Makhachev had an awkward encounter at the hotel, with Volkanovski telling Australian media, Makhachev tried to "mean mug" him but he was not "intimidated."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Makhachev and his team were quick to discount Volkanovski's willingness to take the fight at short notice, telling media outlets, he only took the offer because he could keep his belt.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\ufeff"If the UFC told him to bring his belt to Abu Dhabi he would never take it," Makhachev said of the featherweight champ.<\/p>\n

"He don't have any risk without his belt, that's why he comes.<\/p>\n

"He comes to make money.<\/p>\n

"It's all about this, everybody knows.<\/p>\n

"If he lose he will still have his belt and he will defend at beginning of next year."<\/p>\n

Makhachev added: "This guy don't have any pressure.<\/p>\n

"He come on 11 days, I already beat him, and if I beat him again his people will say that he come on short notice, not in shape, something like this.<\/p>\n

"I just step into the cage, finish this guy. That's it.<\/p>\n

"He know he doesn't touch this belt, ever."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Volkanovski laughed off attempts by Islam Makhachev's "intimidation" tactics when they crossed paths while staying at the same hotel ahead of Sunday morning's fight. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":297776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339655"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339659,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339655\/revisions\/339659"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/297776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}