Michael Bisping described the crowd as “ridiculous” — and in a good way — while calling Alexander Volkanovski’s fight with Islam Makhachev at UFC 284.

The noise was deafening. The support, as Volkanovski put it in his post-fight press conference, was “incredible”. The capacity crowd at RAC Arena was behind Volkanovski the whole way.

And when it was his opponent and the current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev who had his hand raised instead, the crowd made it clear they did not agree with the decision.

“Bulls***”, some sections of the crowd yelled as Makhachev stepped up to the microphone to give his post-fight address.

When it was Volkanovski’s time to speak though, the Australian wanted to make sure his rival got the respect he deserved.

“I appreciate the support, but let’s give a round of applause for Islam,” he said, classy as always even in defeat.

The UFC returned down under on Sunday for the first time in four years and the promotion will certainly be back at some point again in 2023 according to Senior Vice President Dave Shaw.

“The place was deafening,” Shaw said.

“I feel like I’ve been at a Metallica concert just sitting in front of the speakers. It was great. We went through [it], a few of us in the back, just going through some of the really memorable events over the last 12 months at least.

“You think about London last March and Paris, a few of the Vegas events, and this is right up there. It was loud. I think it was over 50 per cent full before the first fight happened and then 90 per cent full during the early prelims.

“It was an incredible week after having not been here for over three years.”

While Volkanovski may have come up short in his first shot at double-champ status, the focus for the Australian now is defending his featherweight belt against new interim title-holder Yair Rodriguez.

The Mexican was clinical in his second-round submission of Josh Emmett as he booked a meeting with Volkanovski, although Shaw said the details of that fight are to be confirmed.

“We haven’t made a decision yet on what the next event is,” he said.

“I’m not sure the timing of our return or that event in particular but we’ll definitely be here again at some point this year.”

Shaw did though agree with one journalist’s assessment that the success of this week’s event proved that Volkanovski deserves more opportunities to fight back home in Australia, having spent so many years defending his belt elsewhere.

“If the question is does it make most sense to always have him here, then yeah there is a big argument for the impact he had across the country this week,” Shaw added.

“Our pay-per-view buys were trending to be bigger than our pay-per-view buys when Conor fought. The impact of Volk and numerous others include Jack Della [Maddalena], who had an incredible performance as well, I think it makes a lot of sense to come back.”