Inside the remarkable rebuilding of UFC 294 on 11 days' notice - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — HUNTER CAMPBELL WAS in Sydney, Australia, last month for UFC 293. On his final day in the city before heading back to the United States, the UFC's chief business officer sat down for drinks with Alexander Volkanovski, the UFC featherweight champion and resident of nearby Wollongong, 58 miles away. Ash Belcastro, Volkanovski's agent, was also in attendance.

The three men talked for hours, until around 3 a.m., about Volkanovski's career and future goals. The plan they devised included a return in January to defend his featherweight title, but what stood out to Campbell was Volkanovski's fixation on a rematch with Islam Makhachev.

"[Volkanovski] kept saying to me, 'I know that if I get another opportunity, I can beat him,'" Campbell told ESPN. «He was obsessed with it.»

Makhachev, the UFC lightweight champion, beat Volkanovski by unanimous decision in February at UFC 284 in one of the year's best fights. Volkanovski, the underdog who moved up in weight, had all the momentum by the end of the fight, finishing the bout on top of Makhachev, throwing punches.

Volkanovski and Makhachev are arguably the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the world. ESPN ranks Volkanovski No. 1 and Makhachev No. 2. As champions of two different divisions, they went in other directions after fighting each other. Volkanovski beat Yair Rodriguez to retain his belt in July. Makhachev was scheduled to defend his title against Charles Oliveira in the main event of UFC 294 on Saturday.

But just hours before he was going to fly to Abu Dhabi for the event on Oct. 9, Oliveira suffered a cut in training. While scrambling to find a replacement, Campbell knew one person he had to ask, though it seemed like a long shot: Volkanovski.

Volkanovski,