{"id":99422,"date":"2025-08-27T10:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99422\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T10:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:24:11","slug":"islam-makhachev-explains-us-decline-in-mma-our-guys-live-for-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99422\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev explains US decline in MMA: \u2018Our guys live for this\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">None of the current male UFC champions were born in the United States, and it\u2019s not a controversial statement to say the US-based MMA is in decline. Kayla Harrison is still proudly representing the stars and stripes, but when Belal Muhammad coughed up his title to Jack Della Maddalena and then <a href=\"http:\/\/v\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jon Jones (finally) retired<\/a>, it was a real sign of the times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">UFC may travel the globe, but it\u2019s a US-based company. It behooves the company to have American champions, contenders, and prospects in the mix. Those percentages seem to be shrinking, however, and former Lightweight champion Islam Makhachev has the explanation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201c[The UFC] started signing more of our guys,\u201d Makhachev said simply. \u201cThat\u2019s the reason \u2026 If they keep signing [fighters from the Caucasus] I\u2019m 100% sure there will be more champions from Caucasus, Dagestan, Chechnya. No brainer, our guys live for this sport. In the USA, for example, they don\u2019t worry even if they competed bad. Behind our guys there is a family, the whole city, the whole Republic. And he feels this responsibility, and goes out with full responsibility and wins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">What\u2019s interesting is that a lot of top Russian talent is not inside the Octagon. Compare a recent episode of Contenders Series to an ACB event, and it\u2019s clear which side holds the more skilled fighters. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/7\/23\/24472916\/khabib-nurmagomedov-explains-no-1-bulls-t-keeping-russians-out-of-ufc-title-fights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Only a select few<\/a> are able to secure a UFC contract, and that small percentage is still capturing titles!<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The other explanation for the decline of US fighters is likely financial. UFC simply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/1\/19\/24347164\/ufc-311-payouts-csac-purse-figures-dubious-moicano-made-more-than-makhachev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">doesn\u2019t pay as well<\/a> as other American sports promotions, so the absolute best athletes are unlikely to chose getting punched in the face if football or basketball is an option. Even coaching wrestling has become gained profitability in recent years, which helps explain why fewer collegiate All-Americans are crossing into the cage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"None of the current male UFC champions were born in the United States, and it\u2019s not a controversial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-99422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99422","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=99422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}