Rising Lightweight Contender, Islam Makhachev just proved that he is a legit lightweight contender by submitting Dober in an arm-triangle choke. The current UFC Lightweight Champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov who is also his training partner, was in his corner as well.
Khabib has said that Islam Makhachev will be the heir to his lightweight throne, and that he thinks that he will beat the current top 5 guys. Just to gauge how good Islam is, their teammates at AKA said that the only fighter that is on par with Khabib, is Islam.
After the fight, Islam has called out Tony Ferguson, said that he wants to retire Ferguson for good. It is certainly a great fight to make since Ferguson needs a win badly, and Makhachev wants a top 10 contender. It is shocking that he has not fought a top 10 contender considering he only has one loss in his UFC career.
We never saw Khabib vs Tony in their prime, it will still be interesting to see Islam vs Tony instead, not the same hype but fans will still tune in. It will also gauge whether Ferguson still belongs in the elite contenders. Khabib does not think so since it will be difficult to compete at lightweight division with Ferguson’s age.
Former UFC fighter, Josh Thompson who trained at AKA even thinks that Makhachev has better skill set compared to Khabib in terms of his footwork, stand-up and a lot more. The only thing that Khabib has the upper hand is his mentality.
