NEW YORK \u2014 As UFC president Dana White stood in the octagon beneath the Madison Square Garden lights, holding a championship belt in each hand as Bruce Buffer read out the final of three 50-45\u2019s on the scorecard, Khabib Nurmagomedov ran over and asked if he could put those gold straps on one of his oldest friends-turned-pupils, Islam Makhachev.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sure, White said. What could go wrong?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe goes over there and raps him over the head with both belts,\u201d White said. \u201cI think (Makhachev) took more damage in getting his belts than he did during the fight.<\/p>\n
“I was saying to Khabib, I’ve been in the fight business since I was 20 years old. All I ever hear is, ‘This guy’s going to be a world champion, this guy is going to do this, this guy\u2019s going to do that.’ Everybody says the same thing, and almost nobody ever does or makes it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut his father said, \u2018Khabib will go in and dominate and he’ll have a run. And when he’s done, Islam will come in behind him and do the same.\u2019 And, holy s—. It played out exactly the way his father said, which is pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Nurmagomedov\u2019s father, Abdulmanap, who first taught him and his friend Islam how to wrestle when they were six years old. He continued to train them as they each went on near-perfect runs from the Russian regional scene to the UFC \u2014 Nurmagomedov and Makhachev are a combined 57-1 in their careers \u2014\u00a0until his death in 2020. That\u2019s when Nurmagomedov retired and took his father\u2019s place, coaching Makhachev to a UFC lightweight title and, Saturday night, a welterweight one, too.<\/p>\n
In a quintessential Makhachev victory, the 34-year-old leaned into his masterful wrestling to disarm one of the sport\u2019s best boxers, shutting out Jack Della Madallena to rip away a belt he held for only 189 days. Makhachev ran up nearly 20 minutes of control time and, in the process, tied Anderson Silva\u2019s UFC record with a 16th consecutive victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On a wild night of breath-taking, highlight-reel finishes, Makhachev reminded the MMA world that he can take breath away as well as anyone in the sport. He just does it with suffocating grappling and triangle chokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest day of my life. I\u2019m so happy to be double UFC champion in Madison Square Garden. It\u2019s what I said all fight week \u2014 this is my dream today,\u201d said Makhachev, who became the 11th fighter in UFC history to win titles in multiple divisions. \u201cI feel better (at welterweight). I feel like I\u2019ve never felt before, you know? I feel more power, more confident when I strike, when I move. I feel much better today. I feel I can control anyone on the ground. I never felt like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moving up a weight class is no joke. Weili Zhang, a massively accomplished fighter who just cleared the strawweight division of meaningful competition, showed the crowd what it often looks like over 25 hellish minutes leading into the main event. Flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko controlled her from start to finish, fighting from her distance, on her terms, at her pace. Size matters.<\/p>\n
But it matters in a different way when you\u2019re a generational grappler. The scariest thing about Makhachev moving from lightweight to welterweight was what an extra 15 pounds \u2014 or, perhaps more accurately, 15 fewer pounds to cut \u2014 would mean for his already suffocating top control. And we found out shortly after the introductions, as Makhachev shot for Della Maddalena\u2019s legs only a minute in and kept him pinned underneath him for the rest of the first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s worth remembering Della Maddalena\u2019s last two fights were against wrestling-based opponents, too. Gilbert Burns is a third degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt and multiple time world champion. Belal Muhammad trained under Louis Taylor, an NCAA Division I wrestler who won PFL\u2019s middleweight tournament in 2018.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And in grappling exchanges with those two, Della Maddalena held his own. He wriggled free from Burns\u2019 grasp repeatedly in their three-rounder, and he progressively discouraged Muhammad from even attempting takedowns over their five rounds by treating the mat as lava, scrambling to his feet whenever his back touched it before Muhammad could apply top pressure.<\/p>\n
But Makhachev\u2019s a different animal in terms of grasp, strength and sheer relentlessness. A takedown is not merely a takedown. It\u2019s a chain of takedowns, one flowing into the next as his opponent tries to scamper away, moving from one limb to the next while driving his head and shoulders forward until he gets the fight where he wants it.<\/p>\n
And so, where Della Maddalena was able to create scrambles and explode out of takedown attempts against Burns and Muhammad, Makhachev smothered him the instant they hit the mat and left little room to breathe. You could see the strain on Della Maddalena\u2019s face when he created a scramble in the first only for Makhachev to ride it through with a bodylock until he ended up back on top with his shoulder digging into the Aussie\u2019s chin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I took him down the first time, I felt it was going to be a long night and I could do whatever I want on the ground,\u201d Makhachev said. \u201cWe watched his old fights. He has a couple of sweeps, a couple of things on the ground. But I blocked him there. And that’s why I made this easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a similar refrain in the second round, as the two went to the floor from a clinch within a minute and Makhachev spent the rest of the round in half guard, disrupting Della Maddalena\u2019s breathing with a forearm on the throat or hand over the mouth, intermittently landing elbows to the face and punches to the side of the head.<\/p>\n
Conspicuously missing from Della Maddalena\u2019s game in the first two rounds was his typical movement and fluidity. We\u2019ve seen him so smooth \u2014 dipping, sidestepping and switching stances seamlessly.\u00a0But Makhachev\u2019s omnipresent threat of a takedown makes any forward movement a risk. And while Della Maddalena found a better rhythm on the feet for the first couple minutes of the third, before long he was returned to the mat to spend the rest of the round trying to wrestle out of d\u2019arce attempts.<\/p>\n
Makhachev gave Della Maddalena a whole 90 seconds to strike with him in the fourth, which led to a lot of feinting and not much else, before driving the fight back into his world and continuing to put the champion in a blender. Needing a walk-off in the fifth, Della Maddalena came out firing, which Makhachev took quick advantage of to land his fourth takedown in as many attempts. And he never let Della Maddalena back up.<\/p>\n
\u201cSay what you want about Jack and the odds \u2014\u00a0the oddsmakers had him a big underdog. I didn’t. I thought that that fight was going to be much, much tougher for Islam,\u201d White said. \u201cJack’s a tough, tough kid. And, gritty. He beat Belal and Belal’s a nightmare for a lot of people. I thought it was going be a lot closer than it was. So, hats off to Islam for dominating.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a landscape-shifting night for UFC\u2019s welterweight division, which has rapidly become the company\u2019s most compelling in the wake of Gabriel Bonfim picking apart Randy Brown and Uros Medic steamrolling Muslim Salikhov last weekend. And the dust may only just be settling this upcoming Saturday when Muhammad and Ian Garry meet in Qatar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond Makhachev on Saturday was Carlos Prates, whose straight left sent Leon Edwards crashing to the canvas as if he\u2019d been hit by a cannon ball, continuing to come up with show-stopping knockouts.\u00a0Then there was Michael Morales, who looked like he was in a different weight class than Sean Brady, again showing he has as much power as anyone in the division with a devastating first-round finish.<\/p>\n
Is there an easier fight to make than one between these two? Or will Shavkat Rakhmonov, set to return from a lengthy injury layoff, have something to say about that? Garry\u2019s last two fights were a loss to Rakhmonov and a win over Prates \u2014\u00a0how do you match him up if he wins on Saturday? And if Muhammad comes out on top, his only loss in his last 14 fights will have been to Della Maddalena. How would he fit into the mix?<\/p>\n
Talk about first-world problems. You\u2019d have a hard time making a bad fight if you put all these names in a hat and pulled them out one by one. Here\u2019s just one possible match-making scenario going forward:<\/p>\n
Kamaru Usman vs. Islam Makhachev for the welterweight title<\/p>\n
Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Jack Della Maddalena<\/p>\n
Michael Morales vs. Carlos Prates<\/p>\n
Winner of Ian Garry \/ Belal Muhammad vs. Gabriel Bonfim<\/p>\n
Loser of Ian Garry \/ Belal Muhammad vs. Sean Brady<\/p>\n
Joaquin Buckley vs. Leon Edwards<\/p>\n
Is Usman the most deserving of a first crack at Makhachev? That\u2019s a difficult case to make. But it\u2019s a lot easier to argue that there\u2019s a reason Usman was in the front row Saturday and shown repeatedly on the broadcast, while everyone from Makhachev to White to Nurmagomedov to his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, who represents both fighters, have indicated he could be next.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ultimately, this isn\u2019t a meritocracy \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s a matchmaker model. And when a fighter gets to Makhachev\u2019s levels of achievement and acclaim, it\u2019s legacy fight time. Usman is welterweight\u2019s second-greatest champion after Georges St-Pierre and, at 38, running out of runway to capitalize on it. Makhachev clearly wants that name on his resume and the UFC no doubt wants to match him up with a recognizable opponent.<\/p>\n
Makhachev, too, only has so many fights left. At 34, he\u2019s closer to the end of his prime than the beginning. The rest of his UFC run will be about the company maximizing his star power and Makhachev maximizing his earning potential. And where those roads no doubt lead is an inevitable confrontation with Ilia Topuria.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s a topic for another day. For now, Makhachev says he\u2019s prepared for whatever comes his way. Prepared to break Silva\u2019s record, prepared to never have to cut those extra 15 pounds again, prepared to continue proving Nurmagomedov\u2019s father right and living out his dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Makhachev stepped up onto a podium for his post-fight press conference, Nurmagomedov was towards the back of the room, watching highlights from the fight on his phone. Makhachev carried those two belts his old friend threw over his shoulders \u2014 or off the side of his head, depending on your perspective \u2014 with him. He set them on the table before him, first lightweight then welterweight, and admired them with a rare grin.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually, for these I bring one belt,\u201d Makhachev said. \u201cNow, I bring two.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 As UFC president Dana White stood in the octagon beneath the Madison Square Garden lights,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-286986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286986","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=286986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}