The UFC is in Australia this weekend for UFC 284 as two titles are on the line in the main and co-main events.
UFC 284 Results – Main Event
The first champion vs. champion fight of 2023 has arrived as the lightweight title will be on the line in UFC 284’s main event. In that fight, UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev looks to defend his title against the UFC’s featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Makhachev is entering this fight on an eleven fight win streak that he recently capped off by winning the vacant UFC lightweight title in his most recent fight. Since 2021, Makhachev has fought five times coming off a two year layoff from 2019-2021 in which he was forced out of fights due to injuries or other reasons. In the first three of those five fights, Makhachev picked up three straight submission wins.
The first was a third round win over Drew Dober at UFC 259, followed by a fourth round win over Thiago Moises in Makhachev’s first UFC main event at UFC Vegas 31, and lastly, a first round submission over Dan Hooker at UFC 267. Following those three wins, Makhachev earned himself another main event fight as he was scheduled to take on Beneil Dariush at UFC Vegas 49, however, Dariush was forced out of the fight due to an injury and was replaced by Bobby Green. Makhachev picked up his tenth straight win that night, finishing Green by TKO in the first round. In Makhachev’s most recent fight, he took on former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for the vacant title. Makhachev ended up winning that fight in the second round when he finished Oliveira with am arm triangle submission.
Makhachev’s opponent, UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, will be coming into this fight with double the amount of consecutive wins coming into this fight as Volkanovski has won his last 22 straight fights. He won the UFC’s featherweight championship in 2019 when he defeated the champion at that time Max Holloway by unanimous decision. He would then go on to face Holloway again in his first title defense and came out on top once again, but this time by split decision.
With Holloway out of the way, Volkanovski faced a new challenger in Brian Ortega. That fight was nearly the end of Volkanovski’s reign as he found himself stuck in a very tight guillotine at one point, but fought it out, and eventually escaped. Volkanovski went on to win that fight by unanimous decision for his second title defense. In his next outing, Volkanovski picked up the first finish of his title reign when he finished Chan Sung-Jung at UFC 273 by TKO in round four. In Volkanovski’s most recent outing, he fought Max Holloway for a third time and once again came out on top by unanimous decision at UFC 276. After four successful title defenses at featherweight, Volkanovski now moves up in weight to attempt to become just the sixth UFC fighter to hold a belt in two divisions simultaneously.
UFC 284 Results – Co-Main Event
With the division’s champion moving up a division to challenge for the lightweight title, the featherweight division will have an interim title fight in the co-main event between Yair Rodriguez and Josh Emmett. Rodriguez is 2-1 in his last three fights as he comes into this one. The first of those wins was a unanimous decision win over Jeremy Stephens at UFC on ESPN 6 in a rematch from a no contest that they had the month before in which the fight was stopped because of an accidental eye poke. Following that fight, Rodriguez suffered his third professional loss when he took on former champion Max Holloway in the main event of UFC Vegas 42, losing by unanimous decision. In his most recent fight, Rodriguez faced former title challenger Brian Ortega and picked up a TKO win, due to a shoulder injury to Ortega, in the first round. Now he looks to get through Emmett to earn himself a shot at the undisputed title when Volkanovski returns.
Emmett is coming into this interim title fight with five straight wins behind him. Following a knockout loss to Jeremy Stephens in 2018 that knocked him out of competition for a year, Emmett returned with a huge knockout win over Michael Johnson at UFC on ESPN 2. That win was followed by another finish as Emmett went on to defeat Mirsad Bektic by TKO in the first round of their matchup at UFC Fight Night 155. In his last three fights, Emmett has picked up three straight decision wins. The first of those came after the Bektic win as he defeated Shane Burgos at UFC on ESPN 11 by unanimous decision. Then came another unanimous decision at UFC 269 when Emmett defeated Dan Ige. In his most recent fight, Emmett picked up a split decision win over Calvin Kattar in the main event of UFC on ESPN 37. Emmett looks to win his sixth straight fight when he faces Rodriguez as he hopes to bring another belt back to Team Alpha Male.
UFC 284 Results – Main Card
Kicking things off on UFC 284’s main card will be a matchup in the light heavyweight division as Jimmy Crute takes on Alonzo Menifield. Crute’s coming into this fight on a two fight losing streak as he has dropped back-to-back fights by KO/TKO against Anthony Smith at UFC 261 followed by Jamahal Hill at UFC Vegas 44. After over a year away, Crute returns to face Menifield who enters this fight on a two fight win streak. Menifield’s last two outings resulted in KO/TKO finishes against Askar Mozharov at UFC Vegas 56 and Misha Cirkunov at UFC Vegas 62.
Following that fight will be a heavyweight matchup between Justin Tafa and Parker Porter. Tafa is coming into this fight with a 2-3 record in the UFC. He has not fought since 2021 and during that year, he lost back-to-back decisions against Carlos Felipe at UFC on ABC 1 and Jared Vanderaa at UFC Vegas 27. At the end of 2021, Tafa snapped that losing streak with a first round knockout win over Harry Hunsucker at UFC Vegas 45. As for Porter, he is coming off a loss after going 1-1 during 2022. He started the year by winning his third straight fight with a decision win over Alan Baudot at UFC Vegas 48. Porter’s win streak was then snapped as he was submitted by Jailton Almeida at UFC Vegas 55 in the first round.
Finally, before the title fights get underway, a welterweight fight between Jack Della Maddalena and Randy Brown goes down. Maddalena has not lost since his first two professional fights in 2016. He made his debut off the Contender Series and has since won three straight, all by TKO over Pete Rodriguez, Ramazan Emeev and Danny Roberts. Brown’s also entering this fight on a win streak as he has won his last four straight. The first of those was a submission win over Alex Oliveira at UFC 261. That was followed by three straight decision wins over Jared Gooden, Khaos Williams and, in his most recent outing, Francisco Trinaldo at UFC Vegas 61.
UFC 284 Results
MAIN CARD (PPV/ESPN+ – 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST)
Islam Makhachev def. Alexander Volkanovski via Unanimous Decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46)
Yair Rodriguez def. Josh Emmett via Submission (Triangle Choke) at 4:19 of Round Two
Jack Della Maddalena def. Randy Brown via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:13 of Round One
Justin Tafa def. Parker Porter via Knockout (Punches) at 1:06 of Round One
Jimmy Crute vs. Alonzo Menifield is Ruled a Majority Draw (29-27, 28-28, 28-28)
PRELIMINARY CARD (ESPN/ESPN+ – 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST)
Modestas Bukauskas def. Tyson Pedro via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Josh Culibao def. Melsik Baghdasaryan via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 2:02 of Round Two
Kleydson Rodrigues* def. Shannon Ross via TKO (Punches) at 0:59 of Round One
Jamie Mullarkey def. Francisco Prado via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass/ESPN+ – 6 p.m. EST/3 p.m. PST)
Jack Jenkins def. Don Shainis via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Loma Lookboonmee def. Elise Reed via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 0:44 of Round Two
Blake Bilder def. Shane Young via Unanimous Decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Elves Brener def. Zubaira Tukhugov** via Split Decision (29-28, 28-29, 30-27)
*Rodrigues missed weight at 127 pounds and will forfeit 20 percent of his purse.
**Tukhugov missed weight at 157.5 pounds and will forfeit 30 percent of his purse.
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