Islam Makhachev is expected to fight some of the top-ranked lightweight contenders next
Islam Makhachev has been hogging the ‘Lightweight limelight’ of late. The Russian recently beat Thiago Moises in the main event of UFC Vegas 31 to bring up his eighth consecutive victory in the UFC.
Makhachev is unbeaten in almost 6 years, and is looking like the man to beat in the LW division. He has now moved into the top 5 of the lightweight rankings, as well.
Following his win, Makhachev called out lightweights – Rafael dos Anjos, Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler.
More recently, dos Anjos posted a Tweet claiming that Khabib Nurmagomedov (Makhachev’s coach and trainer) would return if he (RDA) beats Makhachev, while also revealing that he had heard from the UFC that Makhachev agreed to a five-round fight on the 30th of October.
RDA’s tweet read:
“I just heard back from the UFC that Islam accepted to fight me Oct 30 5 rounds in Abu Dhabi and Khabib agreed to come out of retirement to avenge his brother’s loss after that.”
Ali Abdelaziz brushes off rumors of a Khabib Nurmagomedov return
Makhachev and Khabib’s manager Ali Abdelaziz told via. Brett Okamoto of ESPN that Makhachev would surely return in December, while not ruling out the possibility of a return in October.
However, he brushed off rumors of Khabib returning to the promotion, while also bringing up the fact that the ‘Eagle’ had already defeated Rafael dos Anjos once.
Okamoto’s tweet read:
“Spoke to Islam’s manager Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00). He said Islam wants to fight in December but UFC does want him in October if he can. But Islam is flying to Russia, they haven’t discussed it yet. And Ali said no truth to Khabib. Khabib is retired and they already fought.”
Khabib and RDA fought on the 20th of April in 2014, and the Dagestani won the fight via. unanimous decision.
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