Islam at 170 sounds nice IMO (Shavkat vs Islam)

[Luffy]

I'd say, yeah if Justin is up to the fight, have Makhachev vs Gaethje as a final Islam match up in 155 and then, he'd move to 170... But just like team Khabib — Khabib specifically — said he's against someone getting an immediate title shot coming from another division... Islam Makhachev, as Dana hinted, wouldn't fight for the belt straight away at 170. Likely scenario to me is that Belal ends up losing the title and Islam Makhachev fight Shavkat Rakhmonov for the #1 contender.

Also, since Shavkat is vocal that he has been guaranteed the title shot after Jack vs Belal.... Maybe Islam vs Ian Garry and then he'd fight for the title (likely vs Shavkat, who's a big favourite to beat either Belal or Jack... Heck. I remember when years ago, Shavkat vs Khamzat would be one of the coolest matches fans would speculate as a huge one, back when Khamzat was at welterweight and both were undefeated, and still are)...

Shavkat Rakhmonov is 19-0 iirc, 18 wins by finishes (either KO or submission) except the last one which was a UD win against an also undefeated prospect, even younger than Shavkat. So Shavkat took Ian Garry's 0 losses. He absolutely deserves the title shot way more then Islam and he has been said that, at most he'd fight Islam first. Shavkat might be even more dangerous to Makhachev at 170 than Topuria at 155... That'd be a nightmare match for Makhachev anyways, IMO. And interestingly, Rakhmonov vs Makhachev has been a hypothetical match up that I, personally, have for a while, found a very interesting one...

 

[Thy]

whatever gets him to fight, i'm down with.

 

[Luffy]

whatever gets him to fight, i'm down with.

Or if he wants to retire. I mean, Khabib says the ideal age for retirement is 30 years old. Islam Makhachev could have retired already. Like, whenever they want to retire, they can. Idk if it's because Khabib got more $ from the McGregor fight... Would it be the case? Or is Islam intending to push further than Khabib just because he likes it more, and money has nothing to do with it?

I mean, when I see fighters not retiring because of not enough money yet, it's sad to me... I'd imagine that Islam must want to retire already.

 

[HuskySamoan]

At this point, why not stick around at 155, Ilia is a huge fight and so is Pimblett. Shit even Arman is a good legacy builder. I promise double champs will get more and more common and champions with long reigns and plenty of title defenses less so as time goes on...ones simply easier and a marketing ploy that's often low risk-high reward. He's already ran through a great in Oliveira and Poirier who was Khabibs & Charles leftovers. Besides that he beat Volk and Hooker, these are big fights he finally has when a year ago it felt like besides Arman all he had was Gaethje, Poirier, Chandler shitfest. He can beat Jack or maybe Shavkat, but I'd still get some defenses in and do the 170 title shot when he's thinking about retiring.

 

[Brigfa2]

Stars are aligned for Islam, JDM is the easiest fight in the entire division. The only reason it's not that easy for Belal is because he is not a finisher otherwise he would finish JDM in round 1 too. After winning the WW title, he will retire GSP style.

 

[BroScienceTalkatWork]

I think that's the other reason he doesn't want to fight Ilia. That's the smallest guy he can fight, not applicable to potentially moving up

 

[BroScienceTalkatWork]

Stars are aligned for Islam, JDM is the easiest fight in the entire division. The only reason it's not that easy for Belal is because he is not a finisher otherwise he would finish JDM in round 1 too. After winning the WW title, he will retire GSP style.

Fuck that. Too many fascinating fights for him at welterweight..

 

[Kal-El]

Another bitter Islam/Khabib thread. Conor is that you?

 

[Thy]

Or if he wants to retire. I mean, Khabib says the ideal age for retirement is 30 years old. Islam Makhachev could have retired already. Like, whenever they want to retire, they can. Idk if it's because Khabib got more $ from the McGregor fight... Would it be the case? Or is Islam intending to push further than Khabib just because he likes it more, and money has nothing to do with it?

I mean, when I see fighters not retiring because of not enough money yet, it's sad to me... I'd imagine that Islam must want to retire already.

Whatever happens sooner, i have no emotional investment in people i don't know. I just wanna see fights.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

How convenient

 

[rightfight777]

He will be the overrated Shavkat.

 

[Alpha_T83]

I think Belal beats JDM and Islam stays at 155, and won't fight Topuria @ UFC 317. Unless the UFC throw a boatload of money at Islam, I can't see him accepting to fight Topuria on short notice, when he's already not interested in that fight.

I suspect if Islam does refuse to fight at UFC 317, that Dana will make an interim 155 belt for Topuria to fight for. This would be a complete joke, because Islam would have just defended his title less than 6 months prior. But Dana seems to love Topuria, so he will do him a favor.

 

[nostradumbass]

They didn't say they're against someone getting an immediate title shot from another division, Khabib said he's against a new champ getting an immediate shot when they already gave the more established previous champ multiple shots, and don't want 3/5 defenses being guys with no LW ranking. Just cancel the FW division and move them all up to 155 if they're interchangeable and are giving away free title shots every time the belt changes hands in a different division.

Islam is the LW champ, he's not the FW champ to keep having to beat anybody who gets a couple wins at FW.

 

[Poirierfan]

Shavkat would kill Islam, it wouldn't be close imo.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

Shavkat would kill Islam, it wouldn't be close imo.

I agree. I don't think Shavkat is invincible at 170 or anything but he matches up really well with Islam, probably better than anyone else in the division. He's massive and would be quite difficult to grapple, and I think his durability and power would make him a more effective striker than Islam at 170. At least with other matchups Islam has a more clear path to victory with either his striking or grappling.

 

[Poirierfan]

I agree. I don't think Shavkat invincible at 170 or anything but he matches up really well with Islam, probably better than anyone else in the division. He's massive and would be quite difficult to grapple, and I think his durability and power would make him a more effective striker than Islam at 170. At least with other matchups Islam has a more clear path to victory with either his striking or grappling.

This is exactly why I said what I said. You're correct, it's all about matchups. Islam was having a hard time with Poirier, could you imagine what Shavkat would do to Poirier? Lol, Shavkat is a MW fighting WW and is good everywhere.

 

[snugglecakes]

i propose new rule. If you go for 2 belts and lose... u get stripped of the title of the weight class yur the champ in that you're coming from. No more "nothing to lose" fights for champs abusing the overplayed double champ attempt card. THis would for the most part put a quick end to entitled champs holding up divisions. Feels like half the time they're just lookin for a break fight where they can dodge their title being on the line and they get a second title if they win as a low risk high reward bonus on top.

they also dont immediately get a title shot once they comeback to their original division cause that would just be all the same title chain wise. They have to fight a top contender when they come back and re-earn a title shot. They should maybe even have a required X amount of title defenses before they can go for 2.

 

[Conan the K-9]

i propose new rule. If you go for 2 belts and lose... u get stripped of the title of the weight class yur the champ in that you're coming from. No more "nothing to lose" fights for champs abusing the overplayed double champ attempt card. THis would for the most part put a quick end to entitled champs holding up divisions.

Sounds good and if you win, you have to defend your original belt in four months, otherwise you also get stripped.
No more clogging two divisions.

 

[BroScienceTalkatWork]

They didn't say they're against someone getting an immediate title shot from another division, Khabib said he's against a new champ getting an immediate shot when they already gave the more established previous champ multiple shots, and don't want 3/5 defenses being guys with no LW ranking. Just cancel the FW division and move them all up to 155 if they're interchangeable and are giving away free title shots every time the belt changes hands in a different division.

Islam is the LW champ, he's not the FW champ to keep having to beat anybody who gets a couple wins at FW.

He already cleared out the god damn division.. If he wants harder competition then he should move up.

There's not a single person that's giving him props for fighting Gaethje over Ilia.

 

[Luffy]

They didn't say they're against someone getting an immediate title shot from another division, Khabib said he's against a new champ getting an immediate shot when they already gave the more established previous champ multiple shots, and don't want 3/5 defenses being guys with no LW ranking. Just cancel the FW division and move them all up to 155 if they're interchangeable and are giving away free title shots every time the belt changes hands in a different division.

Islam is the LW champ, he's not the FW champ to keep having to beat anybody who gets a couple wins at FW.

Nope, otherwise Khabib wouldn't also agree that Islam should fight Leon Edwards as soon as Islam got his first title defense in LW vs Volk. That's the first time Islam called Leon and Khabib was in for it. I can prove with the video of you wish.

Plus, it's already been said that the next for the title shot, is Shavkat. Shavkat said tho that he can beat Islam and then fight for the title with the winner. Unless he fights Shavkat, he won't fight for the title.