Islam Makhachev may be standing on top of the MMA world after breaking Anderson Silva’s consecutive UFC win streak record and notching a key title defense across a second UFC weight division, but things weren’t always this way for the Dagestan native, according to one of MMA’s most influential, patriarchal figures.
This was revealed by way of an unearthed interview from December 2019, with the media outlet Ushatayka, in which Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov touched on the UFC’s issues with giving Islam Makhachev high-ranking opposition. Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov also mentioned that Khabib Nurmagomedov faced the same kind of systemic issues in the promotion for a lengthy period of time when he was an active competitor.
Via a translated account of the referenced interview, by way of an excerpt posted by the X account @RedCorner_MMA, Nurmagomedov said,
“They pretend that Islam [Makhachev] is not a contender. They might not be interested in that, but we are interested in another Russian lightweight taking over from Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. They don’t give us any opponents. Give us someone from the top ten. Let me make this statement once again. Give us anyone. If there’s no one from the top ten, just give us someone.”
“That’s why I am saying this: ‘Give us an opponent.’ We’ve been through the same stuff with Khabib for 3-4 years, when he was already a title contender. Now we are facing the same issue with Islam Makhachev. They pretend that he’s not a contender. They might not be interested in that, but we are interested in another Russian lightweight taking over from Khabib.”
Islam Makhachev wonders why a big welterweight title eliminator wasn’t on his UFC 330 undercard
Islam Makhachev shone atop the 170-pound division on August 15th, but the reigning kingpin of the division was contemplating why two of the division’s big contenders did not also clash at UFC 330. The fighters Makhachev was referencing are Carlos Pates and Michael Morales, who were both live in attendance at the numbered UFC event, with both being featured on camera during the broadcast.
There is clearly a story being painted internally to the broadcast of the show that both of these explosive combatants could be next up for a crack at the welterweight crown, and offering up his thoughts on those pieces within the division he currently helms, Makhachev stated [via MMA Fighting],
“Let them fight. Why are they not fighting on this card to see who is the No. 1 contender? It’s OK. We have some real contenders in this division. These guys [Michael] Morales, [Carlos] Prates, Shavkat [Rakhmonov], they make me training everyday more harder. Because I see this is the real fighters who can give me good fights.”
