Islam Makhachev has shown he is not nearly the bravest guy in the room. He is denying Topuria, who is an undefeated young talent, who btw KO'd Volkanovski inside two round, whom Islam had problems doing vs a prepared Volk, it was his toughest fight. The shirt notice fight kinda helped him to set the narrative, yeah. He then called the BMF title that Gaethje had a title for bums, who can't get the real belt. Still, Max Holloway got an awakening of his true potential and had one of his most impressive performances vs Gaethje, someone ranked high in 155. Holloway is > Gaethje and has the BMF title.
Topuria fought a Holloway that was the prime Holloway that beat Gaethje and KO'd him in the third round... Without fulling commiting to showing his wrestling. Islam wants to fight Justin Gaethje, all while he thinks Topuria "adds nothing". I mean, I don't know what he thinks fighting Gaethje is more proof if he is thinking of legacy when Topuria KO'd the guy who dominated Gaethje and KO'd him brutally... And is arguably the BMF champion. But defending vs Gaethje seems ok?
That's the first time Islam (Khabib was not either) is faced with a real, well rounded talent, that is also young. Islam is what, 32? And having 4th title defenses, he even mentioned he could fight DDP (lol wut...) if Dana called him for that fight (at least he admitted Poatan was out of his reach and that vs Pereira, he had no chances, DDP for him was within his reach tho...), but a way easier opponent than DDP (come on... Size matters...) but which threatens his dominance in the division heavily as it's also an up and comer very talented guy... "Nah, he's not ranked here, even though I know he's likely the easily top 3 here and so does everyone, I don't want to fight the smaller younger guy"...
... He then writes that Ankalaev should fight Poatan, writing "stop running", while Poatan had asked for that right after UFC 300, but the UFC likely saw Poatan and Ankalaev as the best ones and tied up for a potential huge match up. Poatan didn't shy once from accepting two fights on short notice, one vs Khalil who he could say "was smaller than him"... Could go up but decided Ankalaev needed a chance to the title... Also talks about JJ and Aspinall when JJ defended the LHW championship literally by a 10 plus title defenses and was open to younger, new generation talents who weren't well known but were very good even after the 4th defense. In his 5th title fight JJ also accepted a short notice fight with a "smaller man" Vitor Belfort who was on some crazy TRT
Poatan didn't care if DDP were from a division below, he opened up the opportunity for a fight vs both DDP and Chimaev... Elite competitors who are smaller (DDP is basically same weight btw). That's why he is the current best paid guy, because he is the bravest in the room. He doesn't care who he's fighting. Islam is just nowhere near a JJ to fear someone to the point even a DDP fight was mentioned when he is 32, has had way less mileage in the UFC than JJ, etc...
Islam should be below JJ, Topuria, Poatan and Ankalaev in pfp. #1 pfp BS thing. At the end, not even those Dagestani guys there are as brave as Poatan... Who was btw likely one of the most impressive champions (and imo, he'll get his title back, yeah Poatan will get the belt back imo, I think his next performance will be dominantly vs Ankalaev).
Islam is afraid of not being a Dagestan champion so he will end up being stripped
