Media Islam Makhachev: I'm getting out of fights in my division, nothing exciting there. Hoping to get Leon fight with 2 wins.

[jeff7b9]

This'll get everyone riled up:
Former featherweight, Dustin Poirier

Throwing gas on the fire and starting shit.

I like it.


I bet you fart on elevators right before you get off for your floor.

 

[blaseblase]

A FW literally brutally KO'd the #1 LW contender. The best FWs are more than good enough to contend for the LW title, it would be laughable for example to value a win over Gamrot for over a win against Volk. "He only fights FWs" is utterly meaningless and dumb argument, he fought arguably the best FW in history, not just any FW.

Volk has never fought at LW, we simply don't know how well he would do there. He could very well just have been another guy in the division who wins one and loses one. Don't forget Max trying as a dominant FW champion 5 years ago and losing to Poirier. Size does matter. BJ Penn was the GOAT LW but lost most of his WW fights. Izzy didnt look very good a weight class up. Conor did win the LW title but is 3-4 against lightweights.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Guy is an excellent fighter. Not here for his personal life, just want to see MMA done at the elite level.

His personality is not lame, just his career management and fight selection

 

[filthybliss]

A FW literally brutally KO'd the #1 LW contender. The best FWs are more than good enough to contend for the LW title, it would be laughable for example to value a win over Gamrot for over a win against Volk. "He only fights FWs" is utterly meaningless and dumb argument, he fought arguably the best FW in history, not just any FW.

you ever hear of the phrase, "styles makes fights"....that max fight was legendary but lets not jump the gun here.

 

[markg171]

I didn’t say he had title defenses over them. I explicitly said they weren’t title defenses in fact. But I did challenge that you said he hasn’t fought #1-4 contenders. That makes it sound as if he has never fought anybody ranked at the top of the division, which is not true. But I know it’s intentionally misleading.

Man, you really do just keep doubling down don't you?

This guy is going to tie the LW title defence record without ever having fought the #1 contender, let alone contenders #2-4.

And this motherfucker has the nerve to say he's out of fights.

The entire argument was about his defending against his TITLE CONTENDERS. You're the one who moved it to instead say he fought the guys in his division as divisionally ranked, not how they're in contention for title shots.

Which yes is an entirely different thing and moving the goalposts, especially when you're referencing Arman who wasn't even ranked when he fought Arman in Arman's short notice UFC debut 5 years ago.

Islam has never defended against his #1 contender, let alone #2-4 title contenders. Volk wasn't in contention in either fight and Poirier's 5th right now behind Arman, Max, Charles, and Justin.

 

[Mmmmmmma1234]

Respectable stuff from Islam. If he wins those two fights I'm for sure ready to see a ww Islam.

 

[The Siege]

His personality is not lame, just his career management and fight selection

Eh, he spent his nonChampion years calling out Top 5 guys with Chandler openly ducking him, I don't know why a guy trying to manage his career is calling out the top dogs.

Becomes champ, ices the Champ who ripped through the Top 5 and was #3 on the P4P rankings and who his fans were saying is the LW GOAT, beats a generational FW champ who was #1 P4P and who people were arguing was a Top 10 GOAT and was going to be a Top 5 GOAT with a win, signs up for a full camp with plenty of time to train for both fighters against the #1 contender who gets injured then he takes a short notice money fight and ends it in Rd 1.

Now he's facing a legend at LW and a Top 5 guy in Dustin. After that he will face a #1 contender in Arman. Seems to be a straightforward legacy with a bunch of excellent wins (if he gets Dustin and Arman).

 

[moosaev]

you ever hear of the phrase, "styles makes fights"....that max fight was legendary but lets not jump the gun here.

Volk gave Islam a tougher test than any LW ever did. If "styles make fights" then lets not downplay Islam's title defense against Volk, the best FWs can beat the best LWs on any given night.

 

[moosaev]

Volk has never fought at LW, we simply don't know how well he would do there. He could very well just have been another guy in the division who wins one and loses one. Don't forget Max trying as a dominant FW champion 5 years ago and losing to Poirier. Size does matter. BJ Penn was the GOAT LW but lost most of his WW fights. Izzy didnt look very good a weight class up. Conor did win the LW title but is 3-4 against lightweights.

Considering how close the Islam-Volk fight was obviously we DO know how well Volk would've done at LW. He showed that he was good enough to beat the best LWs.

 

[sdpdude9]

Man, you really do just keep doubling down don't you?

The entire argument was about his defending against his TITLE CONTENDERS. You're the one who moved it to instead say he fought the guys in his division as divisionally ranked, not how they're in contention for title shots.

Which yes is an entirely different thing and moving the goalposts, especially when you're referencing Arman who wasn't even ranked when he fought Arman in Arman's short notice UFC debut 5 years ago.

Islam has never defended against his #1 contender, let alone #2-4 title contenders. Volk wasn't in contention in either fight and Poirier's 5th right now behind Arman, Max, Charles, and Justin.

“without ever having fought the #1 contender, let alone contenders #2-4.”

You didn’t say defending against, you said fought. This implies he has not fought anybody ranked in the top 5 at any point. This is untrue, I challenged the misleading phrasing, never who he defended against.

 

[FrappeDuRocma]

Sounds good to me, with 2 more wins against Arman and Poirier, he should get his WW title shot.

 

[Striker Fox]

Shavkat will be champion before long. Is Islam gonna want that smoke?

Islam is better everywhere skill-wise. There's no way to know how his power, strength, durability and cardio translate moving up in weigh, It just depends how much good weight he's able to add and how it translates

He might very well smoke Shavkat.

 

[blaseblase]

Volk gave Islam a tougher test than any LW ever did. If "styles make fights" then lets not downplay Islam's title defense against Volk, the best FWs can beat the best LWs on any given night.

Volk also gave Islam his easiest fight. If Volk had spent his career in the shark tank that is lightweight he would have several more KO losses on his record. There's no way he's eating the kind of shots Max took from Poirier and Gaethje.

 

[checktheknuckles]

He beat Oliveira like he owed him money. Get over it.

Just like DC beat Stipe or Usman beat Leon. Islam ducking Charles like a duck.

 

[blaseblase]

Considering how close the Islam-Volk fight was obviously we DO know how well Volk would've done at LW. He showed that he was good enough to beat the best LWs.

Islam KOd him my guy. In fact he's Islam's only clean KO in 6 years. Now imagine him taking punches from Poirier or Gaethje. He doesn't have Max's chin.

 

[fortheo]

Doesn't change that the UFC didn't want Gamrot in the main event. If shit went down in the last 48-72 hrs etc yeah they would put him in but not when they had weeks to salvage things.

They put him on the prelims vs RDA in his next fight lol. If UFC wanted Gamrot in the main event they would've told Islam that's who he's fighting and not given him a choice. If you were Islam's manager wouldn't you have preferred he fight Volk instead? More money for him in PPV buys & settling the score after his performance at UFC 294 was criticized. It's common sense.

That is speculation. It is fair and logical speculation, but speculation all the same.

What isn't speculation is islam saying he could have chosen gamrot or poirer instead of volk.

 

[Morning Star]

I agree with Islam. There's not really any interesting matchups. He dominated Charles, Dustin is a retread that's going to get dominated, he already beat Arman, Gaethje just got finished and already lost 2 times in championship fights, Gamrot is boring, Dariush lost 2 in a row. I wouldn't be shocked if they feed him Conor or let him move up there's no compelling fight for him at 155.

 

[WoozyFailGuy]

As I understand it, Arman was asked immediately following his grueling fight with Charles to fight Islam on 302 which is June 1.

What is that, 6 weeks turnaround? Something like that.

"What else can he do?"
He can fight the #1 contender at a reasonable time schedule rather than forcing (whether via Islam or UFC) another short notice title challenger.

The timing of the whole thing is fucked up. Gaethje was in line for a shot coming of KOing Dustin but Islam wouldn't fight for sufficiently long enough for Justin to take another fight (and presumably a decent payday) but then less than 3 hours after the title picture clears up, with Gaethje and Charles losing, all of the sudden there is a 3 hour window to book a fight on 5-6 weeks notice, take it or leave it?!

Islam is a talented fighter who should be more than capable of fighting the best available challengers while affording them a proper training camp.

inarguable post

Volk gave Islam a tougher test than any LW ever did. If "styles make fights" then lets not downplay Islam's title defense against Volk, the best FWs can beat the best LWs on any given night.

Adriano Martins gave Islam a much tougher test than Volk did. Islam was so nervous about the test that he slept through it.

 

[filthybliss]

Volk gave Islam a tougher test than any LW ever did. If "styles make fights" then lets not downplay Islam's title defense against Volk, the best FWs can beat the best LWs on any given night.

are you pulling my leg? On the off chance that you are not, if the best FWs could beat the best LW at any given point, we would have seen it more than what you are implying. Volk and max are not a good metric to use because they are in top 3 greatest featherweights to ever to do it. Yair and Emmett are examples of some of the best featherweights and they have a chance of getting smoked by Bobby green and Jim miller…..more so than finding a spot for themselves in the top 10 otherwise they would have made the jump to the light weight.

 

[markg171]

“without ever having fought the #1 contender, let alone contenders #2-4.”

You didn’t say defending against, you said fought. This implies he has not fought anybody ranked in the top 5 at any point. This is untrue, I challenged the misleading phrasing, never who he defended against.

How the fuck do you think you "tie the defence record" without defending???

This guy is going to tie the LW title defence record without ever having fought the #1 contender, let alone contenders #2-4.

And this motherfucker has the nerve to say he's out of fights.

Jesus fucking Christ mate.