{"id":276333,"date":"2025-11-11T12:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276333\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T12:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:49:07","slug":"makhachev-targets-usman-for-first-welterweight-title-defense-after-ufc-322","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/276333\/","title":{"rendered":"Makhachev targets Usman for first welterweight title defense after UFC 322"},"content":{"rendered":"

Islam Makhachev is moving up a weight class at UFC 322<\/a> in the hopes of solidifying his legacy as a two-division champion. If he accomplishes that, his next goal is to take out one of the greatest welterweights to ever compete in the UFC.<\/p>\n

Makhachev will have to beat Jack Della Maddalena<\/a> at Madison Square Garden this weekend (Nov. 15, 2025) before he can really start planning his title reign. But it\u2019s clear that the prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Khabib Nurmagomedov has already thought about who he could defend his title against that would look best on his resume.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Jack, Kamaru,\u201d Makhachev told Adin Ross on a Kick stream. \u201cHe has the most title defenses in the welterweight division, and now he\u2019s in a good position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usman currently sits in the No. 5 slot at welterweight despite having only fought once in the past two years (and going 1-3 over the past four years). That 2019 to 2022 run with five successful title defenses still resonates strongly, though, and it\u2019s clear Makhachev wants that name for his record.<\/p>\n

Which is exactly what Kamaru Usman was hoping to hear coming into UFC 322. Usman hasn\u2019t fought since a June win over Joaquin Buckley, but feels he\u2019s on the verge of getting a chance to win his former belt back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my eye on this weekend. We\u2019ll see who comes out victorious,\u201d Usman told MMA Junkie.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m sitting here looking at the winner like, \u2018All right, let\u2019s run it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in a position now to where I want the biggest, most challenging fights out there,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause I understand that I don\u2019t have another 20 fights left in the company. Anything could happen, so if you can get that next one and it could be that fight, then that\u2019s what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many top welterweights, Usman is hoping he can just sit tight and let a title fight fall into his lap. We\u2019d rather see him win one more against someone in the top five, but the division barely moves these days. So if Makhachev wants to face Usman, Usman wants to face Makhachev, and that means another title fight less than six months after UFC 322?<\/a> Sure. Whatever!<\/p>\n

But first let\u2019s see what Jack Della has to say about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev is moving up a weight class at UFC 322 in the hopes of solidifying his legacy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-276333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}