Islam Makhachev solidified himself as the world’s rightful #1 pound-for-pound fighter last time out. Despite arguably delivering the performance of his career, the reigning lightweight king hasn’t returned to action since, but has now given fans a timeline for his next outing.
When Charles Oliveira was forced to pull out of his rematch with the Dagestani late last year, Alexander Volkanovksi accepted the bout on 11 days’ notice. The courageous act was short-lived as the champion scored a devastating knockout of the challenger just 3 minutes into the matchup.
Now, Islam Makhachev hasn’t competed since October and fans are eagerly awaiting fight news from the sambo specialist. Although there is no official fight booked, Makhachev recently announced the date that he expects to return.
“June/July I [will] have [my] next fight,” Makhachev revealed during a recent interview. “I did just one training [session] every day, and nothing like hard, but I’m still training every day because I am a champion.”
lol Islam beat Arman who is currently a top LW contender… funny how forgetful people are when trying to disrespect him. Volk was p4p#1 both times Islam beat him, and Oliveira was also at somewhere at the top of the p4p10 when Islam choked the bitch out.
That was 9 years ago… since then he’s undefeated and been on a tear. He submitted Charles oliveria who was claimed to be the best submission artist in ufc history. Then he beat Volk twice, who was previously the No. 1 and 2 P4P fighter in the world
Islam beat the #15, 14, 10, 4 and 1 ranked fighters in his division already. The only reason he has not beat the 2,3 and 5 ranked fighters in his division already is because they were all turning down fights with him while he was climbing the ranks.
Islam beat the #1 P4P fighter in the world and #1 FW as well and the only reason he beat him again is because the #1 from his own division pulled out of their fight.
He also KOed Tibau when who had only been KOed 2x in 45 fights and he beat an ADCC champ and a future PFL champ.
I was rooting for Charles to upset Islam but the people who deny Makhachev’s achievements are delusional.
See I think JBJ still above Islam. Mostly because Islam defended twice against a 145er (not his fault, but facts are facts). If he defends his belt a handful more times, moves up and challenges himself at 170…by all means.
An argument can be made for Jones as the #1 P4P all time in UFC but as he has only fought 1x in the past four years I think that is why people don’t like calling him the #1 P4P fighter in 2024.
Even before the past four years, a lot of people think Jones lost his last LHW fight and didn’t look great in the one before that as well.
Jones is apparently too busy talking about sticking his fingers in dude’s butts to focus on P4P anyway…
This thread started with people shitting on Islam for not fighting enough and now it’s transformed into defending Jon Jones and his one fight over four years…
He arguably lost the first fight to Volk and we all know the circumstances of the 2nd fight. Islam is overrated. He has never looked good against anyone his own size.
I had responded to someone who did. Khabib left early. Imo. But he beat everyone at the top with the exception of Ferguson. That fight was just jinxed.
