at UFC lightweight champ Islam Makhachev will defend his belt for the first time at UFC 284 when he takes on featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski. The Aussie champ is stepping up a weightclass to challenge Makhachev in the Main Event which takes place on Feb 12.
Khabib Nurmagomedov Will Not Corner Makhachev
Former UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov has cornered Makhachev in his last few fights along with AKA head coach Javier Mendez. Nurmagomedov is also a long time training partner of Makhachev and has played an instrumental role in helping Makhachev win the lightweight belt.
Khabib announced recently that he was retiring from coaching immediately as there was too much travel involved. There was speculation as to whether Khabib would corner Makhachev at UFC 284 since it was such an important fight for Makhachev.
Makhachev has now confirmed that Khabib will not corner him at UFC 284. Makhachev said it was always nice to have Khabib in his corner but understood that he wanted to spend more time with his family.
Makhachev is already in Australia preparing for his fight and said he flew in early as he wanted to avoid jet lag and also get acclimatized to the Australian summer, since he was flying out from a Russian winter!
