Islam Makhachev won UFC 302 against Dustin Poirier, making his friend and coach Khabib Nurmagomedov proud. Even Javier Mendez, who is his mentor and coach, was proud of the P4P fighter. In the meantime, UFC welterweight champion Leon Edwards wants to fight Makhachev next. ‘Rocky’ defeated Kamaru Usman two years ago and is considered the welterweight GOAT by many in the UFC world, including Dana White.
Now, he wants to fight the protegee who is being considered the best P4P fighter in the UFC, not by White but by the fans. Makhachev aspires to be a double champ and has called out Edwards before as well, after the UFC 302 victory last week. Meanwhile, there seems to be a green signal from Javier Mendez too, so, can we expect a fight?
Javier Mendez approves the 170-pound bout for Islam Makhachev
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Recently, the MMA coach and founder of AKA appeared on Submission Radio and spoke to Kacper Rosolowski and Denis Shkuratov. Denis asked him about this possible fight between Leon Edwards and Makhachev and Mendez was more than happy on the prospect. The host asked if the coach was a betting man and put money on Makhachev fighting Edwards if he beats Belal Muhammad at UFC 304.
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via Imago
Mendez happily answered, “What would I want, I would say yes, yes, yes! Only because I want it to. I’ll say yes because I want it to happen, so yes, I am betting man in this case.” Mendez had previously mentioned that the Dagestani would like to fight at 170 lbs. Moreover, Edwards, too, wants it, as he addressed the same previously, however, he does not think that it will come to fruition anytime soon. Edwards is supposed to fight Muhammad in UFC 304 in the welterweight category and has been having thoughts about the 170 lbs division.
Leon Edwards gave his ideas about fighting with Islam Makahchev
Edwards thinks that there is a lot of work for him and his possible opponent to do in their divisions but he is still hopeful for the fight in the future. He said, “I’ll welcome it. I think we all have work to do within our division. Let’s say we both go on this reign, then why not, you know? He just fought his first lightweight… so I feel like you got, like a few more lightweights to go through first before even thinking about moving up.”
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However, he also mentioned to Sky Sports that if this fight happens in the future, he is open to it. He mentioned how both are similar in age and they have time to get this fight into place. The 170-pound champ said that Makhachev has only one title defense against another 155-pounder. The lightweight champ has two bouts against Alexander Volkanovski, who had moved from 145 to 155 to fight Makhahchev.
One thing similar between the two is that Edwards also wants to be a double champion and hopes to fight in the middleweight division. After fighting with Muhammad, he wasn’t to defend his title 3 times, and ‘Rocky’ would like to face the middleweight champ for a chance at a 180-pound title. Do you think that Islam Makhachev and Leon Edwards will get a chance to fight it out? Share your take in the comments below.
