UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev wants to fight at the iconic Madison Square Garden next. Coming off of a fantastic ‘Performance of the Night’ victory over Dustin Poirier at their UFC 302 main event bout, the champ wants to fight in America more.

Speaking to reporters at the post-fight press conference, the Dagestani said that it was his ‘dream’ to fight at the New York venue, which has hosted some of the biggest UFC events in history, including the wildly successful UFC 295 last year.

“Now I think the US fans like me because we show good fight tonight. If they give me chance to come back in Madison Square Garden this is my dream fight in this arena,” he said.

With rumors that Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic will be held in November at the MSG, this does not seem out of the realm of possibility. However, who his opponent will be remains to be seen. Official number one lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan, of course, is waiting in the shadows for his shot at the 155-pound crown. However, Makhachev, as he had told Joe Rogan in his post-fight Octagon interview, reiterated his desire to fight welterweight champion Leon Edwards for a shot at double-champion status.

“Of course, who don’t want to be double champion? It’s history, you know, how many double champ we have? This is a dream fight for all fighters to get second belt, you know. This is my dream, and I want to be in the history and people know me as double champ. If I have chance, small chance, I will get and it’s thing [like this that] make wake up every morning and training very hard, you know,” he added.

After the bout, MMA journalist Aaron Bronsteter revealed that he had spoken to the lightweight champ, who told him he had no problem with fighting Tsarukyan next and wanted it to be at the MSG in November.

Tsarukyan asks Islam Makhachev not to ‘run away’

After the lightweight king expressed his desire to fight for the welterweight title following his UFC 302, Tsarukyan took to Twitter (X) to congratulate the Dagestani. However, the Armenian did not seem happy with Makhachev calling for a 170-pound title shot and reminded the latter that he had only fought and defeated only one lightweight since becoming champ, asking him not to ‘run away’ from the 155-pound division.

“Congrats to Islam! But don’t try and run away to another division. You’ve only defended your title once against a real lightweight, and I’m next in line,” Tsarukyan wrote.

Interestingly, Tsarukyan and Makhachev have fought each other previously, with the Armenian having lost a unanimous decision to the Dagestani on his UFC debut in their 2019 Fight Night clash. With that experience as well as grappling heavy style of fighting, ‘Ahalkalakets’ knows what it feels like to be in there with the champion, and has a good matchup against him as Makhachev, too, is a grappler. What are your predictions for their bout?

Check out the full results of UFC 302 here.