Why is Islam Makhachev so "afraid" of Illia?

[Luffy]

That fight would make Makhachev more $ than any other fight. Khabib tho is heavily against the idea of fighting Illia, saying Illia needs a fight there first, and make a name for himself. Oh well, what about when Umar in his first or second UFC fight went straight to challenge Merab for the belt? Why were you totally in for that then? Khabib even said Islam will move up and fight anyone in 170 even if it's not for the title. And Illia has been provoking Islam and Khabib constantly, saying he would have defeated Khabib back, that Khabib's career was built on fighting mostly average level fighters. Illia also said more than once that Islam could choose the name of the submission that he'd like to be finished with.

Topuria is also apparently someone who whenever asked who's the best, he says "Jon Jones, ofc". And in one of those interviews he was asked "better than GSP, Khabib?" and he was "of course. Comparing with Khabib is a joke. Khabib had as many fights in his UFC career as Jon Jones has defended his belt. People who try to compare both as if it were debatable, I think possibly have a little bit of mental retardation " ...

Despite that, Makhachev is totally ignoring Topuria, willing to go to 170 and fight anyone there. And Makhachev is what, 33 years old. That's not THAT old. Yet he is blatantly wary of Topuria. Ducking hard.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

I'm being told it's because mean fans made fun of him for fighting Volk x2, so now he (conveniently) won't fight any more 145'ers. Even if that 145'er is permanently moving up, also!

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

Ilia's not entitled to a titleshot with 1 defense some of you guys need to hop off the bandwagon and use your head

 

[Spam On Rye]

Fighter is afraid because he doesn't do the thing I want.

 

[StanTheMan]

Khabib even said Islam will move up and fight anyone in 170 even if it's not for the title.

Fuck me. You even pointed it out in this little essay of yours. No one has the right to an instant title shot by moving up. Fight a contender first.

 

[Luthien]

Islam is the hot girl being asked by everybody to prom

 

[xhaydenx]

Ilia's not entitled to a titleshot with 1 defense some of you guys need to hop off the bandwagon and use your head

There's more context to it than just "1 defense" though, brother.

It's 1 defense where he obliterated Max after obliterating Volk, the two best in the division by a huge margin. And all this while being undefeated.

People were wanting to give Islam and Umar title shots before they were anywhere near the top 5. People wanted Umar to jump right to fighting for the title before he'd even gotten his first top 15 win against Cory. Everyone just said these two were too good for the division and deserved it. People thought it made sense.

How is La Leyenda any different? How does it not make sense for him to jump right to fighting Islam?

At the top of LW you've got guys like Gahtje and Dustin trading KOs with each other, yet another FW, Max, came up and went a competitive 5 rounds with Dustin, and then completely outclassed Gahtje. The same Max that La Leyenda wrecked.

Islam had his closest fight yet against Volk the first time. La Leyenda didn't have a close fight against Volk at all.

If Islam and his team were pushing for Umar to fight for the belt off fighting that unranked can that dropped him in the first round, then Islam should be more than happy to fight La Leyenda.

 

[MrBlackheart]

So when Islam beat the #1P4P back to back, Volk is “just a FW”. But when Ilia beat Volk and Max, it’s considered the best back to back wins in ufc history? So is Volk just a FW or a FW Goat? Seems like he’s one in scenario A, the the other in scenario B. Which is it?

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

There's more context to it than just "1 defense" though, brother.

It's 1 defense where he obliterated Max after obliterating Volk, the two best in the division by a huge margin. And all this while being undefeated.

People were wanting to give Islam and Umar title shots before they were anywhere near the top 5. People wanted Umar to jump right to fighting for the title before he'd even gotten his first top 15 win against Cory. Everyone just said these two were too good for the division and deserved it. People thought it made sense.

How is La Leyenda any different? How does it not make sense for him to jump right to fighting Islam?

At the top of LW you've got guys like Gahtje and Dustin trading KOs with each other, yet another FW, Max, came up and went a competitive 5 rounds with Dustin, and then completely outclassed Gahtje. The same Max that La Leyenda wrecked.

Islam had his closest fight yet against Volk the first time. La Leyenda didn't have a close fight against Volk at all.

If Islam and his team were pushing for Umar to fight for the belt off fighting that unranked can that dropped him in the first round, then Islam should be more than happy to fight La Leyenda.

the volk and max wins are 2 great wins but at the end of the day it's still 1 title defense and someone getting an instant title shot in a division that they did nothing in(beating max at FW doesn't count) sets a bad precedent. If Islam had his first defense against volk and then got an immediate shot at 170 that would also be unfair as he did nothing at 170 and only had 1 defense. People had no issue with volk getting an immediate shot because he had 5 title defenses and cleared out his contenders. Ilia had movsar and lopes left and didn't beat either of them before moving up so he didn't clear his division in the same way as volk did. If Ilia got a TS I wouldn't complain, but the ducking allegations because Islam wants ilia to fight a #1 contender are a bit stupid since it makes sense that ilia has to earn a shot

 

[El Fernas]

What makes you think its the fight for the most money for Makhachev? Topuria is a guy that vacated after 1 defense...he is no Conor Mcgregor.

Because its a lose-lose situation, a dangerous guy, but still perceived as a FW, i mean, every LW in the top 15 is bigger than him, if he wins, then yeah, he just beat another FW, if he loses then he is shit cause he lost to a FW, imagine Topuria decides to go back down for another crack at his own belt and he just played the UFC saying he didnt want to make the cut anymore to get a free pass at the title but never defended it.

 

[Luffy]

Fuck me. You even pointed it out in this little essay of yours. No one has the right to an instant title shot by moving up. Fight a contender first.

Yes they have. If the UFC makes him #1 contender, they have. Umar/Urmar Nurmagomedov had the right in his first fight, so... ?

 

[BJJ4Tone]

 

[xhaydenx]

the volk and max wins are 2 great wins but at the end of the day it's still 1 title defense and someone getting an instant title shot in a division that they did nothing in(beating max at FW doesn't count) sets a bad precedent. If Islam had his first defense against volk and then got an immediate shot at 170 that would also be unfair as he did nothing at 170 and only had 1 defense. People had no issue with volk getting an immediate shot because he had 5 title defenses and cleared out his contenders. Ilia had movsar and lopes left and didn't beat either of them before moving up so he didn't clear his division in the same way as volk did. If Ilia got a TS I wouldn't complain, but the ducking allegations because Islam wants ilia to fight a #1 contender are a bit stupid since it makes sense that ilia has to earn a shot

My point is it's more than just number of defenses that matter. It's who you're doing it against and how as well

Islam is talking about going up to fight for the WW belt, but how does he deserve that? He won the belt off Charles and that was great. After that he beat someone who "hadn't done anything at LW" twice, then he defended against kinda washed but still decent Dustin, the short notice Renato.

That's it.

And Volk had 4 title defenses before the Islam fight, not 5. Yair was the 5th but that after the Islam fight. And two of Volk's defenses were against the 1 guy in Max. The other two weren't even that good. Zombie was done as a fighter and had no business in a title fight. He got the shot off a win over Ige of all people. Before that he lost badly to Ortega. The other win for Volk was Ortega himself, who got a shot from that win over Zombie for some reason. That win was his only win in almost 3 years. The only other fight he had was when he got destroyed by Max 2 years before beating can Zombie.

And if La Leyenda had Lopes and Movsar as contenders, well then so did Volk when he moved up to fight Islam.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

He wouldnt get much more money fighting Topuria than he would the other contenders except Arman.

 

[contrail]

Moving up to an immediate title shot is a sporting abomination and should have never happened; it's also incredibly demoralizing for the guys who have fought their way to contendership properly. The UFC let Conor do it to boost the entertainment value of their brand so now they get to deal with the fallout like this mess here. We all know Conor could have lost to any of the top 5 at the time Eddie was champ, and so did the UFC.

At least in Volk's case there was nobody left as a legitimate title contender at the time the first Islam fight was made, but I still found it lame. Topuria should fight Arman, which will give him some credence as a contender should he win or absolve Arman of his sins should he win so he can finally challenge for the belt.

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

My point is it's more than just number of defenses that matter. It's who you're doing it against and how as well

Islam is talking about going up to fight for the WW belt, but how does he deserve that? He won the belt off Charles and that was great. After that he beat someone who "hadn't done anything at LW" twice, then he defended against kinda washed but still decent Dustin, the short notice Renato.

That's it.

And Volk had 4 title defenses before the Islam fight, not 5. Yair was the 5th but that after the Islam fight. And two of Volk's defenses were against the 1 guy in Max. The other two weren't even that good. Zombie was done as a fighter and had no business in a title fight. He got the shot off a win over Ige of all people. Before that he lost badly to Ortega. The other win for Volk was Ortega himself, who got a shot from that win over Zombie for some reason. That win was his only win in almost 3 years. The only other fight he had was when he got destroyed by Max 2 years before beating can Zombie.

And if La Leyenda had Lopes and Movsar as contenders, well then so did Volk when he moved up to fight Islam.

movsar did not deserve a TS when volk moved up and lopes wasn't in the UFC at the time.

My point is that if you are a champion from a lower weight class that wants to move up then you have to either clear out your division or win a #1 contender fight in the division that you want a title shot in, 2 things Ilia did not do.
Islam deserving a title shot at 170 is also questionable as there are multiple contenders so I don't disagree with you there

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Moving up to an immediate title shot is a sporting abomination and should have never happened; it's also incredibly demoralizing for the guys who have fought their way to contendership properly. The UFC let Conor do it to boost the entertainment value of their brand so now they get to deal with the fallout like this mess here. We all know Conor could have lost to any of the top 5 at the time Eddie was champ, and so did the UFC.

At least in Volk's case there was nobody left as a legitimate title contender at the time the first Islam fight was made, but I still found it lame. Topuria should fight Arman, which will give him some credence as a contender should he win or absolve Arman of his sins should he win so he can finally challenge for the belt.

Your timeline is a bit off. McGregor moved up when Rafael Dos Anjos was the champion and they were signed to fight. RDA pulled out due to injury.

It wasn't some conspiracy to cherry pick Eddie Alvarez and get the title on McGregor. No one had any idea Alvarez would be champion.

 

[richardjohnson]

Hard to believe TS is all there seeing as he thinks Umar got a TS in his first or second UFC fight

 

[moosaev]

There's more context to it than just "1 defense" though, brother.

It's 1 defense where he obliterated Max after obliterating Volk, the two best in the division by a huge margin. And all this while being undefeated.

People were wanting to give Islam and Umar title shots before they were anywhere near the top 5. People wanted Umar to jump right to fighting for the title before he'd even gotten his first top 15 win against Cory. Everyone just said these two were too good for the division and deserved it. People thought it made sense.

How is La Leyenda any different? How does it not make sense for him to jump right to fighting Islam?

At the top of LW you've got guys like Gahtje and Dustin trading KOs with each other, yet another FW, Max, came up and went a competitive 5 rounds with Dustin, and then completely outclassed Gahtje. The same Max that La Leyenda wrecked.

Islam had his closest fight yet against Volk the first time. La Leyenda didn't have a close fight against Volk at all.

If Islam and his team were pushing for Umar to fight for the belt off fighting that unranked can that dropped him in the first round, then Islam should be more than happy to fight La Leyenda.

The difference is that Islam wants his own shot at 170, and he’s waiting to see the result of JDM-Belal. It’s hypocritical to cry about Ilia not getting an opportunity when even Islam hasn’t gotten an opportunity at a second belt even though he deserves it way more than ilia. The ilia fan boys are acting so entitled, it’s genuinely crazy. You would’ve thought ilia defended the FW belt ten times instead of once the way you guys are behaving lol.

 

[The XL]

Ilia wouldn't be a walk in the park unlike most of Islam's fights, and Islam and his camp know it.