UFC athletes aren’t allowed to place bets on UFC bouts anymore, but Edson Barboza wouldn’t be against waging some money on Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 294.
He thinks Volkanovksi has a good chance to dethrone lightweight champion Islam Makhachev next Saturday afternoon.
Barboza, who headlines Saturday’s UFC Vegas 81 event opposite Sodiq Yusuff in Las Vegas, fought Makhachev’s teammate and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov before switching divisions to compete at featherweight. Barboza knows the power of Dagestani wrestling, but sees a path for victory for 145-pound champion Volkanovski next week in Abu Dhabi.
“[Fighting on] 10-days’ notice is much harder, no doubt about it,” Barboza said on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast. “When you have a full camp, you really come better prepared, cardio and all that, but that automatically makes Volkanovski lighter in a sense, without all that pressure over his shoulders. If he loses, he took it on 10-days’ notice. He’ll be more dangerous, especially early in the fight.”
Volkanovski forced Makhachev to dig deep to win a close decision in February, then returned to 145 pounds to defend his title with a stoppage of Yair Rodriguez. Makhachev was slated to defend his belt in a rematch with Charles Oliveira on Oct. 21, but the Brazilian was pulled from the card after suffering a cut in training 10 days before the show.
“I have to get beat [up] a lot to earn my money, so I would rather go by the logic,” Barboza laughed when asked who he would bet on to win. “No chance I would bet on Volkanovski. I’d bet on Makhachev. As an athlete, however, I believe that Volkanovski has all the chances to beat Makhachev.
“He was asking for a rematch since the other fight so he really wants this fight. I think Volkanovski will come in very dangerous, for as long as he has cardio. I believe he can win.”
“We wanted to see Charles as the champion, to bring the belt to Brazil,” he added, “but it won’t be this time — but I’m sure he’ll bring it soon.”
Barboza is headlining a UFC event for the fourth time on Saturday. He’s gone 0-3 in his previous three top-billing matches with Kevin Lee, Justin Gaethje, and Giga Chikadze, but knocked out Billy Quarantillo in just three minutes this past April.
Yusuff enters the cage having won six of seven under the UFC banner.
“It’s a MMA fight, and it’s hard to predict what can happen,” Barboza said. “We can only imagine. Most of the fighters I fight always try to trade with me and eventually try to take me down and grapple, they try to get me tired, but I’m prepared to fight wherever the fight goes.”