Islam Makhachev

A rematch between Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski yielded the same winner at UFC 294 as Makhachev defended his lightweight title against Alexander Volkanovski via first-round TKO.

While the first fight was a hard-fought five-round battle, this one took much less time with Makhachev taking Volkanovksi out with a left high kick to end the night early.

Marc Raimondi of ESPN noted just how rare it is for Volkanovski to be finished.

The UFC passed along a picture that captured the moment Makhachev sealed the win.

Despite the loss, Volkanovski was in good spirits after the bout and was focused on getting back into the cage soon to defend his featherweight title.

This wasn't the vindication that Makhachev was initially after at UFC 294, but it's impressive nonetheless. Makhachev was slated to rematch Charles Oliveira, but he was forced to withdraw from the fight due to a cut suffered in training.

That gave way to another rematch, but the same chance for Makhachev to further cement himself as the best lightweight in the world.

The obvious retort to that statement is that both of Makhachev's title defenses have actually come against a featherweight. Volkanovski has fought admirably in the heavier weight class, but he's made his name as a 145er.

That's something that Makhachev is hoping to address by getting one of the two biggest names in the 155-pound division. He's hoping to see a rematch between Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira that will determine his next foe.

"I'm pretty sure that after this fight, there's already two definite opponents that are ready for a fight with me," Makhachev told reporters ahead of the fight. "I think the two of them should fight each other so we have an actual No. 1 contender for the belt."

Oliveira won the first fight with Gaethje by first-round submission. If he's able to repeat that result we could find ourselves back in the position of anticipating a bout between Oliveira and Makhachev.

Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira was forced to withdraw from his 155-pound title fight against reigning champ Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 on Oct. 21, but the company quickly found an exciting replacement.

UFC president Dana White confirmed to ESPN's Marc Raimondi that UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski will step in on 11 days' notice to face Makhachev in Abu Dhabi.

The fight between Volkanovski (26-2) and Makhachev (24-1) will be a rematch from their clash at UFC 284 in February. Makhachev won by unanimous decision in a fight that was considered to be one of the best in the history of the lightweight division. While Volkanovski failed in his bid to become a two-division champion, he remains one spot ahead of Makhachev in the UFC's pound-for-pound rankings.

"This is how we do it, brother," White said. "One fight falls out and we end up making a fight -- it's one of the most anticipated rematches ever in that weight class."

White noted that Oliveira and his team were slated to fly to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, but he ended up sustaining a cut on his eyebrow during sparring on Monday night. The cut required stitches and was serious enough to force Oliveira out of the fight. However, it took just "one phone call" for White to convince Volkanovski to take his place.

"The Volkanovski crew, him and Israel [Adesanya], these guys are absolute studs, man," White said.

Makhachev enters the fight riding a 12-fight win streak. Volkanovski bounced back from his loss in February by retaining his featherweight title with a third-round TKO victory over Yair Rodriguez at UFC 290 in July.