{"id":888556,"date":"2026-09-11T20:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T20:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888556\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T20:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T20:42:16","slug":"islam-makhachev-targets-early-2027-for-next-ufc-title-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888556\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev targets early 2027 for next UFC title fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Islam Makhachev hopes fans won\u2019t have to wait too long to see him fight again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The reigning UFC welterweight champion\u2014and No. 1 fighter in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/rankings\/494850\/mma-pound-for-pound-rankings-where-do-ilia-topuria-alex-pereira-go-after-ufc-white-house-losses\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MMA Fighting Pound-for-Pound Rankings<\/a>\u2014has fought just once in 2026 so far, recording another title defense with a win over Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 in August. Makhachev now holds the record for most consecutive UFC wins at 17, and he has successfully defended titles at 170 and 155 pounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Though he is eager to return to action soon, Makhachev told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5okqkFDQewc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Match TV<\/a> he has a few nagging injuries that need to heal up first.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cAfter the fight, I had three MRIs and had my entire spine checked,\u201d Makhachev said (Russian-to-English translation via <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ChampRDS\/status\/2097758088598098105\" rel=\"nofollow\">Championship Rounds<\/a>). \u201cThere are a few small issues, so I\u2019m working on them. It\u2019s nothing serious. I\u2019m just strengthening my spine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Makhachev has had to make a few physical adjustments since moving up from lightweight, where he set the record for most successful UFC title defenses in that division with four. Any physical issues he\u2019s been dealing with haven\u2019t held him back as he he scored a dominant decision win over Jack Della Maddalena to become champion before defeating Garry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The devout Muslim champion has typically structured his fight schedule around Ramadan and if everything works out, Makhachev could be back in early 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cWe\u2019ll wait for the UFC to call,\u201d Makhachev said. \u201cI think the ideal scenario would be to fight before Ramadan. Ramadan starts for us in February. A date before Ramadan would be ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev hopes fans won\u2019t have to wait too long to see him fight again. The reigning UFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-888556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}