Khabib’s teammate, Islam Makhachev has a difficult time climbing the ranks mainly because no ranked fighter wants to fight him. Who could blame them? You are basically fighting more or less the same level with Khabib but lower ranked. With Khabib, everyone wants to fight right now because of the money and being then champion.
The only fighter that was higher ranked, and wanted to fight Islam was Kevin Lee. He has called out Islam numerous times but the UFC had other plans. Most likely, the UFC wanted wait out Lee and Islam at their highest to fight in order to get the best out of the fight, but unfortunately Lee lost to Charles Oliveira.
Now, Islam has only 1 loss in the UFC, but is riding on a 7 fight win streak, you would have thought he is a top 5 ranked fighter by now, but sadly he could not climb since the only fighters willing to fight him are either lower ranked or unranked. Top ranked fighters avoid Islam mainly because of the high risk, low reward fight.
One of AKA’s fighter, Josh Thompson revealed that in terms of skill and technique, he thinks Islam is better than Khabib. The only thing that Khabib has that is better than Islam is his metal strength.
According to reports, three top ranked fighters have turned down Islam for a potential fight. Rafael Dos Anjos turned down the fight, but he did nothing wrong. He was scheduled to fight him twice but was cancelled to unwanted circumstances.
Paul Felder who is known to fight killers after killers refuse to fight Islam. He admitted that it is tough fight to take, mainly because of the relentless pressure that Islam possesses. It speaks highly of the level the Dagestani fighter is in right now.
Other top ranked was Dan Hooker, who is game to fight a lot of elites during his rise to the rankings. Islam is simply the definition of the “BOOGEYMAN”, all fighters just avoid him at all cost, and who could blame them. He basically breaks fighters, which some fighters pick to get knocked out over being broken mentally.
