Islam Makhachev Reveals UFC Rejected an Offer to Return in the Summer:


92 LW’s on the roster, that number needs to be at least halfed

How is a guy 19-1 and 3-0 in the UFC ranked 40th?!?

And a 2-3 chandler is so high

U mean 41st

40th, 41st 20th?!? Get this 1 loss fighters some fights!

Or don’t

he says a lot of things mate - the reality is they don’t happen unless the odds are stacked firmly in his favour. Perfect example is bitching out of the Gaethje fight for UFC300 so he could hold out for Saudi later in the year.

“undisclosed injury” then is seen doing pullups on instagram.

Then gaethje vs max randomly gets announced immediately after that announcement. I appreciate you are a fan and i understand why- they are great athletes but they are also cherry picking weight bullies that don’t take any risks and have personalities of brainless robots. For those reasons I am not a fan

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Thats because the strength of your wins and losses is what gets you up the ranks as well as just wins. Thats why 21-19 Michael Johnson is close at #39 in those rankings to 19-1 Rebecki in the rankings. Fightmatrix does rank Rebecki much higher as 18th in the UFC though while Johnson is #33. Rebecki’s last win was over the 134th ranked guy in the world though so that is he ranked so low in the rankings you see. Guys ranked higher in the rankings you see might have more losses but they have bigger wins over higher ranked fighters.

When Dariush pulled out of their #1 contenders fight, Gaethje turned down the Makhachev fight even though he knew it equaled another title shot. Maybe he didn’t have time to make weight, maybe he was injured, maybe he was not in shape and didn’t want to fight Makhachev without a full camp.

Taking the right fights at the right time is not unique to Khabib or Islam. Thats my point. You look at their records in the UFC and its just pretty hard to deny what they did.

You want to talk about fighting with odds in their favor?

Khabib had to go 9-0 in UFC to get a title shot.
Islam had to go 10-0 in UFC after his loss to get title shot.

Gaethje only had to go 4-2 to get a title shot. Went 1-0 to get another shot. Now getting a 3rd shot off of going 2-0. They even let him fight for the fake BMF belt while 2-2 in his last four.
Chandler only had to go 1-0 to get a title shot.
Conor went 1-0 at LW to get a title shot.

You care about Islam not fighting on a card you want him on but do you care about how UFC will fast track certain fighters like Gaethje to title shots but put others like Islam or Maia on the slow track?

Talk about odds being stacked in someone’s favor…

I’m no more a fan of Makhachev than I am say Oliveira or Gaethje. I recognize Makhachev didn’t fight anyone anywhere anytime anyweight in his career like say Vovchanchyn, Hendo and Saku used to do in that era.

I know its a different era. Sure you got the fighters like Michael Johnson who are 22-19 and dangerous and made a good living but the type of path Khabib and Makhachev were on was different.

Cejudo dedicated his life to wrestling and once he won the gold medal he walked away. He was done. Thats kinda what Khabib did with that UFC title. He certainly didn’t fight like a Big Nog, Barnett and Aleks in his first four fights like Nastula did when he entered MMA but most great fighters try to manage their career more like Khabib these days than like a Nastula or Hendo and with the way UFC is these days… those Russians usually have to be like 10-0 or 14-2 before they can a UFC offer anyway, certainly they were hardly signing any of them back in Khabib’s day.

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Gaethje has a much stronger resume than Islam. he has been next in line for a shot since 2022. He was not fast tracked and Islam most definitely was.

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Gaethje did have a resume coming in but then he went 1-2 in his first 3 fights getting stopped both times and being damn near stopped himself in his win. Then he had to win 4 fights in a row to get a shot.

JG had to beat James Vick (legit contender), Barboza (1-2 going in), Cerrone (who was 4-5 in his last 9) and Ferguson (who was a legit contender)

Islam went 10-0 and beat Dober who was 6-1 in his past 7, Ramos (6-1 coming in) Tsarukyan (who hadn’t lost in 5 years and had won 12 straight) Hooker (not a big win) Kajan Johnson (6-1 coming in) and Bobby Green (not a big win).

Neither one was fast-tracked IMO.

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@JackMerridew @Nick_Diaz_Army

Get your fuckin cocks out! Kinda feel bad for the animals, though.

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Just a note - It was Arman’s debut and he nearly beat islam. Arman wrecks him now in a rematch. Watch Islam avoid that match up like the plague

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“nearly” and “what if?” are, in sum, your arguments.

The fact remains that he had at LEAST a tough of a road to get a title match as Gaethje which was what I was posting about. Looking at it now, he had a harder path. I didn’t see that at the time.

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Samoa.

Are you trying to achieve Jackmerridew trolling level status

What about the facts I posted (all facts, not conjecture or “what if?”) is trolling? Legit question.

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I think Ur medication may be scattering Ur brain

Go watch the arman fight. I like to talk in objective fact for the most part too. he nearly fuken beat him

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Again, what about the facts I have posted is trolling?