After Almost Beating the Brakes off Khabib’s Successor, Reality of Islam Makhachev’s Wrestling Laid Bare by Alexander Volkanovski

Alexander Volkanovski is the current reigning featherweight champion. In his time as champ, he has successfully defended his championship several times. However, the one fight he remembers most wasn’t a title defense. In fact, it wasn’t even in his own division. That’s right, ‘The Great’ was finally beaten by a fighter from another division.

That was none other than Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s teammate, Islam Makhachev. Makhachev comes from the same roots as Khabib, and that makes his style somewhat similar. Their fight took place when Volkanovski moved to lightweight to challenge Makhachev. He almost won the fight, but almost hardly counts when the win is given away. Here’s his take on why fighting Makhachev can be so troublesome.

Alexander Volkanovski talks about Makhachev’s greatest asset

Islam Makhachev is a class fighter. He’s currently the reigning lightweight champion, and he’s held his title for almost a year now. The Dagestani fighter snatched the title away in October 2022 when he put Charles Oliveira in an arm-triangle choke. Since then, he’s hardly let his grip loose on it. He even successfully defended it against Volkanovski, who has recently released a video pointing out how difficult it is to fight Islam.

“Islam, Khabib, these Dagestani guys, they’re all about baking people down” said ‘The Great’. “You want to build up and they’re gonna make things hard. You will need to get to a knee, they’re gonna take that away from you. They’re gonna shove that leg so you can’t get to the knee.” He further added, “It’s little things like that that they’re going to always try and make things so hard for you to build up,” he continued, “with Islam finding that space is very hard. Islam is very good at closing that space…”

Many have called Nurmagomedov and Makhachev’s fighting style rather boring because of all the wrestling. Regardless, it’s obvious that it is undeniably effective against great opponents.

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When the two of them fought, it was not an easy match for either. In fact, both fighters received the Fight of the Night award for their stellar performances. However, Volkanovski’s dream to be a multi-divisional champ was stamped on and squashed. Perhaps he needs a little more experience against grapplers and wrestlers in a different weight class before he can challenge Makhachev again.

What’s next for Islam Makhachev?

After defeating Oliveira once, Makhachev is confident he can do it again. Their title rematch bout is set to go down on October 21st at UFC 294. It will be the star-studded main event that everyone is looking forward to. Oliveira has undoubtedly been preparing for the fight with as much strength as possible. However, what kind of strategy is he going to need? ‘The Great’ had some insight on the topic.

“For Charles to catch him, I think he needs to, you know, like really focus on that takedown defense,” said Alexander Volkanovski. “Getting back to the feet you know and then getting Islam out of position on his way building up off your back”

Clearly, his fight with Makhachev has left him with an important impression of the fighter. Maybe ‘The Great’ has it all figured out, or maybe he just prepares silently to take down Makhachev someday. If the Dagestani fighter loses his rematch against Oliveira, then ‘The Great’ might just end up challenging someone else. For the time being, all fans can do is wait until UFC 294 goes down at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

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