MMA Fighting - HOAM | Reaction To Alexander Volkanovski Replacing Charles Oliveira vs. Islam Makahchev At UFC 294

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

There is a new lightweight championship main event for UFC 294 as Charles Oliveira is out, and Alexander Volkanovski is in to get a second crack at Islam Makhachev next Saturday in Abu Dhabi. On a special pop-up edition of Heck of a Morning, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the news that broke last night, if this rematch between Makhachev and Volkanovski is more intriguing than the originally scheduled bout, what this could mean for the featherweight division, and more. Additionally, listener questions include Dana White revealing Khamzat Chimaev vs. Paulo Costa is in jeopardy, who could step in and replace Costa if needed, and much more. You can listen live to Heck of a Morning Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 10 a.m. ET on the MMA Fighting Twitter Spaces. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine, available now, only from Audible. The Vox Media Podcast Network. Wednesday, October 11th, 20203, and it is indeed a heck of a morning, depending on who you ask. I bet you're wondering why we're, doing a show on a Wednesday live on the NBA fighting Twitter spaces.

And to be heard, show you're thereafter, and it's entirely in the MA fighting podcast. Now it's because UFC 294 has changed in a big way. And there may be more changes to come. Because after Dana White's Contender Series, actually during the card, the Overdog's podcast reported that Charles Oliver is out of the UFC 294 main event against Islam Makachef.

That rematch no longer happening. Olivera with a nasty cut, as we saw when he posted the photos of it. And that another rematch is going to take its place. Alexander Volcanovsky, who is expected to fight Ilya Tuporia, January 20th at UFC 297 in Toronto, steps in on under two weeks notice to take this fight. Absolutely insane. And I have seen it all over the place. Volk getting tons of credit for this,

and he deserves it 100%. But let us not forget Islam Makachchev because time and time again, Islamakachev has these fights booked and set up and scheduled. Opponent falls through. and Islam Makachev could easily just say, nah, I'm just not going to fight. I'm just not going to do it.

He says yes. He says yes to this. And it's going down. Dana White confirmed it after the contender series. Alivaera out, Volcanovsky in. And then he also revealed that the co-main events between Hamzaa Chimayev and Paulo Costa, that is in jeopardy as well.

I think we all know why. Paul Costa revealed earlier this week that he had some issues with his elbow, had surgery a few weeks back, but didn't want to pull out of the fight. Costa said, I'm fighting. Dana White said, maybe not. Should have an update in a few hours. It's been several hours. We have no update.

I have reached out to some people. I've been told as of right this seconds, nothing has changed. I know another colleague over at Emilyfighting.com, website, shout out Jen Mishu, has been told the same. So no change as of right now that we've been told about, but we do have one official change, and that is we're getting Mokachev Volkovsky 2. Now, in this kind of a situation, I'm okay with it. I was not ready to see it again.

Honestly, first fight was great, but you know how I feel at this point about champions defending their titles against fighters in their division. Mokachev fighting Volk for the second time this year. But this is an emergency. You needed it. We needed to replace a Mokachev had to fight on this card. It's just part of the big deal, the big money deal with Abu Dhabi. He had to fight on this card.

Dana White said one phone call. And I talked to Volk's manager, Ash, earlier this morning. And I was just like, dude, this sport is ridiculous. And he just goes, yep, sure is, mate. unbelievable unfrigan believable and it turns out after everything that was going on yesterday

I was like you know what GC the wonderful Connor Burks he's going to Manchester for the Misfits boxing events do the MMA hour live later on today live from Manchester

I'm going to do him a solid because we have the watch party next Saturday I'm just going to record the cold open yesterday. And I did it. Did it all. Put the audio together. Put the music behind it. It sounded incredible. And now I have to redo the whole damn thing. We can't use any of it. We may not be able to use any of it. Maybe we can still use the Hamzaa Tchama'amai of Polakosta piece, but maybe we can't even use that anymore. So, unbelievable. All right. So we're

going to take calls for like 15 minutes. That's it. It is a day off for me. Wife's got to go to work. I get a tea time. So I get ready to play some golf in a little bit. So we will bring in a very special guest immediately. My best friend, Alexander Cayley, aka your reaction to all of this. My best friend, good morning to you.

I'm sorry to take up some caller time. I know it's your day off and you don't want to be on the call as long as usual. But what the freak, man? Mike, what the freak? I was enjoying... Sorry, by the clicking and clattering. I was enjoying myself a nice, peaceful Tuesday evening. And then, you know, we all check in on the Slack every now.

And then I wasn't even on social media. I found out through... I think I did see it from C.C. Legastri from ESPN, though, before checking the Slack. So I wasn't completely bowled over. You mentioned you had to do that cold, the cold open to the show. We're also... We're working on a roundtable for the weekend. kind of had the questions all laid out.

Nope, that's probably out the window now. We've got a whole new set of question. I don't even know what the roundtable is going to be about now, actually. But yeah, I'm never going to complain about getting to see Islam Makachev and Wolkonovsky fight again. Circumstances are very strange. It's worked out very well for Volkanowski, who's pretty much every interview he's done since that first fight, whatever he's asked, he's always managed to sneak in like,

oh, by the way, I do want that Makachev rematch someday. I do want that Makachov rematch someday. So he got it. You know, he got it. He was ready. This isn't surprising at all. All the stories about him just being like right on point. Like, just call me.

I'm ready to go. Not surprising at all. And, you know, in the year of chaos, we should have expected something to happen. This rematch coming about, the first one, with Olivera and Makachov, almost seemed a little too neat. It seemed a little too neat. Like the chaos would have, of course, been if Olivera had won the rematch, but that still didn't seem strange enough. Now we are entering bizarre territory where somehow we got Makachab and Volkanowski twice in one year and possibly Machchchiev losing the title.

I am leaning towards Makachov, but this is just so strange. My thoughts are all over the place. I really don't have a question. I have one for you, AK. Please, please. On the AK Lee gymnastic scale of fighting life. It's unfortunate. We don't like to wish illness and, you know, illness and,

injury to any fighter. But is this better? Is this the better rematch, in your opinion? It is the better rematch. It is the better rematch. As much as I've often half-joked about my dream of Oliver beating Makachev and luring Habib out of retirement and then beating Khabib, I'm starting to think that's probably not going to happen. I think finally I'm coming to grips with reality. And again, that fight with Volk and Makachev, it happened to the beginning of the year, but let's not forget that, that's probably still the fight of the year. That fight was so good and so high level. I wish we could get it under better circumstances with Volk being more prepared because

I don't like his chances. Even if people thought he won the first fight, I think fighting Machachep again with on 11 days notice, I know he's prepared, I know he's probably been thinking of Makachv all this time. It's still not the same as having a dedicated camp to this opponent. So that concerns me. But if I had to choose, if, if before the old. Olavera fight was booked, that rematch was booked, and he had to tell me, ask me, like, which rematch could I have if I could only have one?

I would, of course, pick the Volcanovsky rematch. But hopefully Charles gets a shot down the road. We'll see what happens. It's going to depend a lot on whether Kamakachap beats Volkanowski again. If he does, they may run a trilogy. I don't know in 2024. So it's all up in the air. But I'm not going to crap on this decision-making too bad for Matush Gamrod.

But he was never fully confirmed as the balance. backup anyway. I know he is going to service a backup, but Dana White, when he was asked about it this past weekend, wasn't like super into it. He was like, oh, yeah, I guess he said an interview. Sure. So Gamrod, I think I would like to see him get the shot as well, but how can you complain about Makkahevokovych, too? I agree. Thank you, my best friend. And here's the thing. I saw some people like, well, what about Gamrod? You have to understand that, I don't know if like the Abu Dhabi government has to approve the fight. To some respect, but like, Mokachev Gamrod is interesting, but it's not going to sell tickets, a ton of them. You know what I mean? It just is not a huge fight. And I saw some people, even some fighters,

talking about how like Gamrod might not be ready to fight until like February and March of next year. So maybe there's some weirdness to all of this. But yeah, this is the best results on short notice we could probably get. outside of Justin Gachie. Like if Justin Gachie was going to take this fight a week and a half notice, like I'd be losing my mind right now.

But Volk was getting ready for a fight. Anyways, and he's just basically like, he had the hand surgery after the big win over Yaiyar, had to take care of that. Wasn't super major. So look, he's going in, Volk's going, he's playing with House Money right now. This is a House Money fight.

I know Machachev or probably someone who represents Machachev tweeted out earlier. Kudos to you, Volk, but don't use the short notice as an excuse. Yeah, he's got an excuse. He's got a built-in excuse. And he can use it until the cows come home. And what if he wins? Good freaking God, man. Good freaking God.

What a year. The chaos hammer just continues to drop. And then we're still waiting on what's going. on with with paul costa and i guess like one of my other questions for you guys is if for some reason costa can't go what's the like what do we do what do we do i know marvin vittory i think i don't know dana said it's umbo vatory saying no vittori went on twitter and said something roman delizzi wanted the fight. I kind of don't think he's going to get it.

I saw Chris Wyden actually tweet out he wanted the fight. I just don't know if that's actually realistic with the injuries he sustained in Boston. And I kind of don't like that fight for him anyways, for being honest. I would actually like, like honestly, I kind of want to see Brennan Allen in this spot.

Like, Brennan Allen is getting ready to literally fight. He's getting ready to headline against Paul Craig in like three weeks, get Brendan the opportunity. Like I'm actually like somewhat intrigued by that one. That's an interesting fight. And what an opportunity for for Brendan if he takes it and is even somewhat competitive in this fight.

I don't know what they're going to do, man. Because I don't think there's going to be a lot of guys like jumping up to the plate to say, yeah, I'll fight that guy on a week and a half's notice. But it's not a bad idea. Hey, maybe we pulled Michelle Pereira. Maybe we pulled Pereira from Saturday. We bump him back a week to have him fight Hamzaa Tchamai. I don't know.

This is going to be interesting. All right. See, a few of you lined up, so I'll take all three of you. Australian talk, Ebswalia, and Blumen will be the callers remaining. Go ahead, Australia talk. Yeah, good day, Mike. How good is it, man? Alex Volcanovsky, the little Aussie

battler, mate, stepping up to save the UFC once more, ready to throw down any day of the week. Man, I understand why you're maybe not too happy about it, but as fans, bro, you know, the sports for the fans. And if Connor McGregor has taught the fans anything, is that

not all fighters will fight for the fans. They'll go and do other things in their life, mate. You know, Volk lost here. Wouldn't it be a strange coincidence if he wins over there on Islam's home turf. I don't think we're going to have the five rounder,

but I would love for Robert Whitaker to throw his hat in to the ring and say, I'm coming for you, comes up. I'm coming, I'm coming with Volk. Whitaker versus Chamev. Now, that's a fight as well, bro. Maybe on too short a notice for him, but I'm sure if someone else jumping him. But ultimately, man, you should just be in love with Little Volk.

He deserves some of that oil money over there as well, man. So let's make him a superstar. Let's get him loaded up. And what a champion, right? And let me just be clear. I appreciate the call. I'm not upset about this fight. I love it, especially in this type of situation.

Now, was this my first choice, like, before they announced the Olivera rematch? Like, if the UFC three months ago said it's going to be all, it's going to be Mokachev, Volkov. two in October. Would I have been like mad about it? No, but would I have been like, oh, come on. Like, there's fights for both guys, like within their divisions that are really interesting. Yeah, I would have. But in this situation, with Oliveira out, I didn't even love the Oliveira rematch. Like, I get it, but I didn't love it. We've seen it. I don't think that fight goes any differently. I do think this is the more intriguing matchup. But I just think it's, to me,

like if you're just going to straight up book this one without a short notice replacement type of situation, then to me it's just like, we just saw this in February. We just saw the fight. Both had full camps and Machachev won. It was a competitive

fight. And I love it. To me, it's still the fight of the year. But I'm fine with this. Like, I'm totally fine with this. This is better. I'm more intrigued by this than the Gamrod fight. So this is great. I don't have any issue with If this is like the first choice, I would have a little more of an issue with it.

I'd still be fine with it because there's going to complain about watching the two best fighters in the two of the three best fighters of the world fighting each other. I don't think anyone's going to complain about that. But we're getting it in this type of situation. I'm fine with it. It's to save the card. Volk deserves a lot of credit. And as I said at the top, Islam, Mokachev deserves so much credit for taking this fight.

All right, let's continue on. All right, rapid fire, guys. Rapid fire. I want to try to get as many as I can. So real quick on the questions, because I do have to get out of here in like six or seven minutes. Got as well.

Yeah. This is a really crazy last 24 hours, I have to say. So, you know, with the... I'll start with the Polarcov, because that's a very short thing. If the UFC does not want to... If they have to cancel this fight and if they come from replacement of Hamza,

I'd just say push it back to Madison Square Garden. that'll at least give enough time for Costa to heal and recover his elbow properly. And, you know, they'll probably just have to have a very short training camp for both parties. But at least that gives each other enough of time to prepare. Because in my opinion, that car really needs at least one more main big name outside the main title five. Because, you know, I like Matt Freevola. Matt Fravella from probably puttering his name, Jared Gordon and some of these other names. but they just don't move the needle

and compared to last year's card in the year before, those are really fantastic cards in terms of name, value and paper and also how they delivered. So yeah, let's see what happens. If Costa this fight, I'll give him my salute, that man's a fucking warrior.

If they do manage to find someone, well, I hope it's maybe a Robert Whitaker or maybe Marvin Victoria because Drieker de Plessis, he has no reason to be fighting Hamza. He earned his title shot, rightfully so. I think let Jared Canaanier and

Roman just have their fight out in December. That would be a really interesting fight. Now, for the Islam and Volk situation, I just want to really get your thoughts on this scenario I want to propose like alternative situations. So let's say if Volk wins on Saturday, do you reckon

he fights earlier to Proeustum in January or Is it possible, you know, he might think, I don't even need to prevent him further way anymore because I've literally set my legacy to the highest level on that division. I'm going to focus on 155. Maybe the UFC will eventually set up a trilogy between him and Islam, but that also depends on if Islam loses,

will he have to do the same thing Oliver did and fight a contender to get the number one contender again? And in the meantime, Volk maybe fights Justin Gaci or Charles Olivera, because regardless, I can see Olivera, see Oliver in the mix and to my point with that also what happens to Oliver and what happens to Justin Gagchi I've talked a few of my friends about this day you know they were saying to me today maybe Justin Gagchi and Dustin run the back at the third time unless Dustin you know he's done 155 he just wants money fights or maybe one last chance at a title shot and you know gives his run at

170 and Charles Alvera's like he's kind of in a really dire situation because I don't know how his relationship with Dana. I know he's very popular among the fans, but from what I've seen, Dana doesn't kind of particularly like to put him in the front of the lines like he does with other fighters. So I'm curious to see if maybe they make the Gamrod fight with Charles, or he does fight the winner of this,

the winner of this fight, basically. And, you know, the Gamrod thing is also interesting. I mean, I wouldn't have mine Gamrod because he's a good title defense, first of all, and, you know, It's definitely a fresh name for Islam. So, yeah, I mean, that's all I have. Thank you, man. Have a great day.

Thanks, man. All there is in a weird spot. I think we have to wait to see how things play out here. So it's too early to tell. I think if you're Olivera, you better pray that Mokachev wins. Because I think of Volk wins, they're just going to run that one back or they're going to do Gachie. I think he gets leaped over here.

I think there's a good chance to get sleeped over anyways. Because Gachie beating Poria, the way that he did, he's probably going to get the next shot. So, yeah, I kind of think O'Ferra is SOL at this point, unless it's like an availability thing. So, yeah, I mean, it's tough to matchmake without seeing how this fight plays out. As far as the Kasa thing goes, or the Shemaya thing,

Shemaya's fighting on this card. He has to. He has to. I like $294. It's fine. But compare it to the last, like last year's Abu Dhabi card, not as good. Hamzad is like the big seller here, even more than the main event. Like, normally it's two title fights, but you have Hamzad and the intrigue behind that, man. It's almost like, okay, because we don't, it's Hamzot versus Costa is, by the time we get to next Saturday, if it happens, that's the fight everyone's going to be talking about, even more than the main event.

That's just how it happens sometimes. but Hamzat has to fight on this card. He has to. So I think they will find somebody, even if it's, it doesn't matter. Like it really doesn't matter at this point. Throw him in there with anybody.

Throw them in there with anybody. It's like the number 37 middleweight is like, yeah, dude, I'll be at Abu Dhabi cornering a teammate anyways. Throw him in there. Hamzat, he has to fight. He has to fight on this card. He has to. So I don't think,

I don't think he's going to get Whitaker. Maybe Vittory steps in, but if I'm Vittori, like, why would you do that? Maybe it gets you in the good graces with the UFC, but I think he just, you just, you just got to keep him on the card. It doesn't matter who the opponent is. But like I said, Brett and Allen is preparing for a main event fight. Pay him a few more bucks. Send him to Abu Dhabi. Give him this opportunity with Shima if he wants to fight.

He wants it. So, not a better. call. I like that idea. I like that idea. All right. Well, we got like four minutes. So let's fire through these. Blumen, go ahead. How's it going? I hope everything's right.

All right. Good morning to you. What's going to happen to the January card? Because all the division already booked up. The only free ones are middleweight and bantam weight, but there are reports that UFC watch on a melody in Vegas. So do we see Strickland DDP in Toronto, or does Alex get a quick turnaround? What are we going to see?

And I'm going to say this again. Where is Greg Gillespie? Any reports on him? Good morning to you. See you. Gillespie's probably fishing somewhere. Not really sure. Yeah, January is going to be interesting.

I mean, maybe you do. Like, I know we have Arnold Allen versus Mops. are Vloyaf booked for that card. Maybe you do Tuporia versus one of those guys for the interim title, or you do maybe you do Tuporia versus Max Holloway for the interim title.

Especially if Volcanovsky wins that fight, I think if Volk wins, you just kind of have to be like, look, bro, you're the lightweight champion now. Like, you're still the two-division champ. You're the lightweight champ. You're the lightweight champ. We need you a lightweight. Sorry. I know you want to bounce back and

forth, but we need you a lightweight. So maybe do Holloway versus Toporia for the undisputed title. Maybe you have that ready to go. That's a fine main event. I think people will be okay with that. And I know what you're saying, oh, Mike, you didn't want to see Holloway versus Taporia.

I don't. But in this situation, if it's for the title, yes, I'm okay with it. I'm okay with it. If Volka's out of the picture, then please make that fight. That's a fine main event. You could also do because

it seems like all signs are indicating that we're going to need a new heavyweight champion sooner rather than later, because we do have John Jones and Sipe fighting. I just don't know if either guy sticks around after the fight. So if Jones says,

all right, thanks for the cheese, I'm out, and we need a new heavyweight champion. We could do Pavlovich versus Aspinall or Pavlovich versus Almeida. If he beats Derek Lewis, which I think he will. Or if Derek Lewis somehow wins, you do Derek Lewis in there for the title fight. Like, probably,

you have to do the heavyweight title in that situation. Maybe you do the bad. I don't know. But I think you have Max Holloway on standby at this point. You say, hey, if Volcanovsky wins the belt, you fight Ilya for the vacant featherweight title. Volk's just the whiteweight champion. And if Volk does want to move back, then whatever. He gets the first shot.

But all the biggest fights for Volk at this point are at 55. Volkanovsky versus Gingchi, are you shitting me? That's insane. that's an insane fight so we'll see how it plays though alright we got a few more minutes hurry yeah

yeah sturgis yeah I'm trying to figure out how to pronounce how are we doing that yeah hello what do you think happens to costa now that is pulled out again in like I don't know

it's been a while since before well we fought the beginning of this year but it lost so what happens to costa now does it get cut or does it get fed to some prelims or what happens to him. And what was my other question? Who do you think steps in for Hamza?

I know you mentioned Dreykis, Jared Kahnir, maybe Whitaker, but I'm seeing the name Bo Nicol quite a lot on Twitter. So why not him? I know he's kind of getting fed to the top dogs here immediately. I mean, he's just been a bum recently. So I don't know how we do again, Hamza. If you're not, Booneck or maybe Kevin Holland again. Oh, God, no.

Can't do that again. Yeah, I appreciate that. Look, again, if I am my druthers, it's Brennan Allen. Pull him from the Paul Craig main event and just give him the shot. He's on a nice streak right now. He's finishing guys. He's much more exciting. This guy was the middleweighty, middleweight champion not that long ago.

He might still be once you figure out what that actually means in the point because middleweight has become like one of the fun divisions in the sport which i never thought i would say into a live microphone but that's where we are now so brendan allen that that would be my choice it's not fatoree because i think homzat absolutely annihilates him deline's it i think humzad annihilates him brendan i think humzad would win but i think that's a it's an interesting fight because brendan allen's grappling is friggin real good so but again i don't think it matters who he fights And at this point, guys, Costa's not out. Costa's not out of the fight yet.

Unless something has, like, drastically changed. Yeah, that's where we're at right now. Costa's not out. Someone asked you earlier, because I mentioned, I mentioned a couple times that, like, once 2.94 is over, there's a story I have to tell about this fight. And I will say this. If Costa does get pulled, I will tell you the story

before 294 about this fight about a wild day a few weeks back which all makes sense now with this whole elbow surgery thing i think you guys got to be kind of blown away by it but it wasn't something like we could report or anything like that because like nothing really happened um but i'll tell you it's pretty freaking wild at this point so all right uh lee cole adi i apologize but I got to go. This is just kind of like a pop-in. I said I was going to go for 25, 30 minutes, tops, and we're already at the 30-minute mark.

So thank you all very much. I'm screenshoting your images right now. Boom. So when we come back tomorrow, you three get to jump to the front of the line. How about that? But I just wanted to hop in on a day off for an emergency edition of heck of a morning

reacting to the big news. And who knows? maybe we'll get some other big news that we'll react to as well. Maybe we have to come back later on today. I don't know. That's just the way this crazy sport has been. So for everybody who hopped in, listened, was able to get through. I appreciate you all.

Either way, regular show, back tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern here on heck of a morning. Have a great rest of your Wednesday, everybody.