Who are the Bellator and UFC LW champs on 1/1/2024?

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Nurmagomedov and Makhachev are the current champs.

Nurmagomedov will be defending his LW title in the Bellator 8-man GP in 2023 and the field could include Alvarez, Bendo, Barnaoui, Patricky, Musayev, Shabliy, McKee, Primus, Bak etc… and he would have to defend the title 3x successfully to be champ on 1/1/2024.

Makhachev is defending in March vs Volkanovski and one actual LW should be getting a title shot vs the winner in the fall. Dariush might need to get another W and move to 9-0 to get a title shot, Dustin is 0-2 in title shots but coming off the Conor and Chandler wins he is up there for a shot. 12-1 Fiziev is coming off the RDA win and has a 6 fight win streak. Oliveira of course just lost the title but is still 11-1 in his last 12.

The race to the fall title shot looks to be between Dariush, Oliveira, Fiziev and Dustin.

3-2 in his last five Gaethje and 2-3 in his last five Chandler are both highly unlikely to see a title shot without building a few meaningful wins in a row. Conor is 2-3 in his last five and likely returning at WW.

There should be two LW title fights in the UFC in 2023 and three in Bellator. It will be very interesting to see who beyond Volkanovski gets title shots this upcoming year and lets see if the Eagle/AKA fighters can go 5-0 in title defenses.

I’m predicting Makhachev will still be UFC LW champ on 1/1/2024 but I think Barnaoui will upset Usman in the LW GP at some point and win the whole thing and be LW and GP champ on 1/1/2024.

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They’ll both still be champion unless Islam moves up to WW or if Usman leaves Bellator

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aj and volk.

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AJ has a tough road ahead. Fighting the RIZIN LW champ, 14-1 Roberto Souza on NYE before the GP even starts.

It should be a great fight. I’m interested in what the odds look like once they are up.

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Islam and Usman will most likely stay champs. Barnaoui is 1-1 against Abdulmanap students. Lost to Islam and beat Shamil. Shamil is not that great though. Of course that was a while ago and not that relevant but the team has experience against him. If there is any time to beat Usman it’s now while he’s still so green, I doubt Barnaoui can do it though.

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Close fight tonight for Makhachev but he held onto the belt.

We should be seeing the Dariush vs Oliveira winner get the next shot. I’d be shocked if Islam plans to try to defend the belt two more times in 2023 but you never know, he did take four fights in twelve months on the way to the title shot so I guess its possible he fights around August and then like Dec with a win but who knows.

Bellator LW GP kicks off next month.

Usman has to get by Bendo in March to hold onto the title.