Ahead of his UFC 314 title fight, former champion Alexander Volkanovski made a bold claim that may have been a bit misinterpreted. ‘The Great’ claims that there’s hardly anyone who can take him through the entire five rounds in a fight, except Islam Makhachev, indicating that the lightweight champion is the toughest challenge he’s ever faced. But what about Ilia Topuria? After all, the soon-to-be former featherweight champion put his lights out at UFC 298. Was he throwing shade at the Georgian-Spanish star? Well, that doesn’t seem to be what Volkanovski was implying.

Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski had one of the best fights ever in the modern MMA landscape at UFC 284. Although the rematch was a brief one, the first fight had everybody on their feet as both fighters fought to a decision. ‘The Great’ claimed to have been pushed by the Dagestani native to his limits, which is why he believes that the only fighter who can give him a 25-minute challenge is Makhachev. But when it comes to Ilia Topuria, the whole scenario is a lot different.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Ilia Topuria is one of the best boxers in the UFC at the moment. But Alexander Volkanovski believes that there are others who may be even better than ‘La Leyenda’. “You could see why people would take that the wrong way. They’re going to be like, ‘Oh, he’s just acting like Ilia got lucky.’ It’s like, no, he set it up still. I’m not taking away their effort. There’s a lot more fighters that got a way better chance of catching you,” the former featherweight champion told SHAK MMA.

While he hasn’t downplayed how good of striker Ilia Topuria is, Alexander Volkanovski has always won fights in the featherweight division whenever they go to the distance. On that note, ‘The Great’ is pretty confident that there’s hardly any 145-er who can beat him to a decision, and that was the whole crux of his claim about Makhachev taking him to the very last minute of a 5-round war. “They got good setups, and all that, but if the fight goes 25 minutes, if a fight with me or anyone in my division goes 25 minutes, I’m winning. I’m getting my hand raised every single time. That’s what I mean by it,” Volkanovski added.

Just like ‘The Great’ lauded Islam Makhachev, the Dagestan native also made a revelation about fighting the former 145 lbs champ as well. As Alexander Volkanovski approaches his title fight against Diego Lopes at UFC 314, let’s take a look at what the lightweight champion had to say about his former Australian foe after their UFC 284 clash.

UFC 284 fight against Alexander Volkanovski was ‘crazy’, claims Islam Makhachev

Besides UFC 284, Islam Makhachev also had to fight for the entire 25 minutes when he welcomed Arman Tsarukyan into the UFC. Before their rematch at UFC 311 got scrapped, the lightweight champion made an honest confession as to which fight was harder. Surprisingly, he chose Alexander Volkanovski, who primarily fights as a featherweight, instead of his fellow lightweight, claiming that he never expected the fight to go for five rounds.

“It was one of the hardest fights, of course, but it’s not the toughest fight, because of the five rounds with (Alexander) Volkanovski—that was crazy,” Islam Makhachev told UFC.com. That close fight sparked some doubts about Islam Makhachev’s credibility as the lightweight division’s boogeyman and as the champion. But it was then that he had decided not to leave any stone unturned and finish ‘The Great’.

“When I fought Volkanovski, I told everybody I have to finish the questions and finish him. That’s why, with the second fight, I was looking for the finish, to make everybody shut up,” Islam Makhachev added.

Even Islam Makhachev has appeared to give Alexander Volkanovski the same props he received from the ex-featherweight champion. So what do you think? Did his recent comments indicate him being dismissive of Ilia Topuria? Drop your comments below.