October 18, 2023 10: 15 am ET
Islam Makhachev went from preparing for a high, aggressive striker and submission artist in Charles Oliveira, to a brief, stocky, counter striker in Alexander Volkanovski – and he had just 10 days to change to the modification.
Yet, regardlessof the unexpected and extreme switch up in challengers for what will be Makhachev’s 2nd light-weight title defense at Saturday’s UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi, his coach Javier Mendez is not concerned in the smallest.
“Islam doesn’t care since we can modification strategies on a cent,” Mendez informed MMA Junkie in Spanish. “We can modification it as numerous times as we desire since he’s well-rounded. He has all the designs. He has whatever. He has boxing, Thai boxing, fumbling, jiu-jitsu, sambo, he has whatever.
“So we wear’t care about how we’re going to prepare, no. He’ll be allset versus anybody who actions in that cage. It doesn’t matter who.”
This is the 2nd time Makhachev (24-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) takes on Volkanovski (26-2 MMA, 13-1 UFC), as the 2 battled in February in Australia. That night at UFC 284, Makhachev de