Islam Makhachev News

Curtis Calhoun - August 8, 2024

UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier scoffed at Arman Tsarukyan’s idea for an interim title fight as Islam Makhachev recovers from injury. Makhachev is sidelined with a hand injury he suffered during his UFC 302 title fight with Dustin Poirier earlier this year. He was originally anticipated to headline UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi, but due to his injury, he won’t be fully recovered in time for the event.

Cole Shelton - August 8, 2024

Dricus Du Plessis has warned Islam Makhachev of pursuing the middleweight title. Makhachev previously shared his intentions of becoming a champ-champ, but after Belal Muhammad became the welterweight champ, those plans seemingly went out the window. However, Islam’s coach Javier Mendez recently came out and expressed interest in Makhachev moving all the way up to middleweight to try and win that title.

Cole Shelton - August 7, 2024

Javier Mendez, the coach of Islam Makhachev believes his fighter could have a unique path to becoming a champ-champ. Makhachev is the current UFC lightweight champion, but he is good friends with the welterweight champ Belal Muhammad, as the two have also trained with one another in the past. With that, Makhachev has said he won’t fight Muhammad, but instead, Mendez thinks Makhachev is good enough to jump all the way to middleweight and win that belt.

Harry Kettle - August 6, 2024

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev has praised Max Holloway for his BMF title triumph over Justin Gaethje. As we know, Islam Makhachev is the king of the 155-pound division. Over the course of the last few years, he’s really been able to cement his place at the top of the mountain. Because of that, he’s been left without too many stand-out challengers. Arman Tsarukyan seemed like the next logical move, but unfortunately, neither man is ready for that contest just yet.

Curtis Calhoun - August 2, 2024

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev plans to change course after Belal Muhammad’s welterweight title victory. Muhammad defeated Leon Edwards by unanimous decision to capture the UFC welterweight title last Saturday in Manchester. After a long road to the welterweight title shot, Muhammad made the most of his opportunity and put on a largely dominant performance to dethrone Edwards.

Harry Kettle - July 29, 2024

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev has said his UFC 308 return is in doubt due to a hand injury. For quite some time now, Islam Makhachev has been the king of the lightweight division. In recent times, he’s been able to dispatch Charles Oliveira, Alexander Volkanovski and Dustin Poirier. Now, many are wondering what’s next for him – especially with there being no clear number one contender who is available to fight.

Cole Shelton - July 10, 2024

Leon Edwards says he’d prefer fighting for the middleweight title as opposed to squaring off with Islam Makhachev. Makhachev has recently expressed interest in moving up to welterweight to challenge Edwards for the welterweight title to try and become a champ-champ. However, if Edwards gets past Belal Muhammad in the main event of UFC 304, he says he’d rather move up to middleweight to try and become a champ-champ.

Harry Kettle - July 9, 2024

MMA analyst Chael Sonnen has given his thoughts after Michael Chandler claimed he was offered a fight against Islam Makhachev. As we know, Michael Chandler has spent a long time waiting to fight Conor McGregor. Finally, it seemed as if he was going to get his shot at UFC 303. Unfortunately for the former title challenger, it wasn’t meant to be. The Irishman pulled out due to injury, leaving him in the dark as to if – and when – he would finally get the chance to stand across the cage from ‘Notorious’.

Susan Cox - July 1, 2024

Dustin Poirier is challenging Islam Makhachev to a rematch and in the process is responding to ‘bumskie’ Conor McGregor. ‘The Diamond’ (30-9 MMA) fought Makhachev (26-1 MMA) in a lightweight bout a month ago today at UFC 302. The result was a submission victory for the Makhachev, the lightweight champion, at 2:42 of Round 5.

Cole Shelton - June 21, 2024

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev has taken aim at ‘chicken’ Conor McGregor. McGregor was supposed to make his highly-anticipated return on June 29 against Michael Chandler. However, just weeks before the fight, it was revealed the Irishman was forced out of the bout due to an undisclosed reason.

Cole Shelton - June 13, 2024

Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos doesn’t think Islam Makhachev should be the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC. Makhachev is the current UFC lightweight champion and after he submitted Dustin Poirier, fans called for the 155lbs champ to be the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC. However, UFC CEO Dana White shot that down as he believes Jon Jones should still be atop those rankings.

Harry Kettle - June 13, 2024

Sean O’Malley and his head coach Tim Welch have given their thoughts on a Leon Edwards vs Islam Makhachev superfight. Next month at UFC 304, Leon Edwards will defend the UFC welterweight championship against Belal Muhammad. If he can get through that challenge, there’s an excellent chance he’ll wind up battling Islam Makhachev in his next outing. The UFC lightweight king called for a shot at the 170 pound belt after his recent triumph over Dustin Poirier.

Harry Kettle - June 11, 2024

UFC star Dustin Poirier has compared the skillsets of former opponents Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Earlier this month, Dustin Poirier fell to submission defeat at the hands of Islam Makhachev. Of course, as we know, earlier in his career, Poirier was also submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov. Despite losing in both instances, he put up a real fight against these two legends and you could argue he came close to winning both times.

Curtis Calhoun - June 6, 2024

UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier feels the comparisons between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev are unfounded. Makhachev defeated Dustin Poirier in his latest UFC lightweight title defense at UFC 302 last weekend. Nurmagomedov, who retired in 2020 and entered the UFC Hall of Fame in 2022, was front-and-center to witness Makhachev’s latest victory.

Curtis Calhoun - June 6, 2024

UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is increasingly annoyed with Arman Tsarukyan’s public taunts. Makhachev defeated Dustin Poirier in the UFC 302 main event on Saturday in Newark. He remains the UFC’s pound-for-pound king after his latest successful title defense and will likely face Tsarukyan later this year.

Susan Cox - June 6, 2024

UFC CEO Dana White is taking aim at the ‘f*cking stupid’ MMA media for voting Islam Makhachev ahead of Jon Jones in the P4P rankings. Islam Makhachev (25-1 MMA) was recently awarded the number one spot in the P4P rankings, moving current heavyweight champion Jon Jones (27-1 MMA) down to the number 2 spot.

Curtis Calhoun - June 5, 2024

Former UFC featherweight titleholder Alexander Volkanovski feels his two-time foe, Islam Makhachev, deserves the pound-for-pound nod over Jon Jones. Makhachev defeated Dustin Poirier by fifth-round submission to retain the UFC lightweight belt at UFC 302. He remains the UFC’s pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter as of this writing, with Jones in the No. 2 spot.

Fernando Quiles - June 5, 2024

Eddie Alvarez has made his prediction for a possible rematch between UFC lightweight titleholder Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan. Makhachev and Tsarukyan had a competitive showdown back in 2019. Makhachev emerged victorious via unanimous decision. While Makhachev has gone on to become a UFC champion with three successful title defenses, Tsarukyan hasn’t done too bad either, going 9-1 since that encounter.