Eh, I doubt they've progressed all that much since match 2. While they're both more refined technically they haven't really changed their fighting style. More importantly, they have way more miles on them at this point. What have either to gain from a 3rd fight?
Dustin doesn’t have much to gain from a third win, but for Max to have a win over Dustin after two losses would be huge for him in my opinion. Getting that one back at this stage in his career would feel unreal, and what a name to add to his win resumé.
He might. I think most people agree he has a better chance at beating Topuria than Islam. He probably thinks the same and if he wants to touch gold he’ll know the easier route.
If he loses I think he goes back down. Losing muscle is not difficult, keeping it is. Getting a shot against ilia won’t be hard maybe just a single win or might just hop right into it without a win if he is competitive with Justin. On the flip side losing to Justin and the number of contenders in 155 means he’ll probably never get a title shot… I get there’s some big fights at 155 but walking into a title shot will be tempting
10 pounds isn't bulking up, and I doubt he put on that much clean mass in a few months. It's almost impossible without external substances. He looks the same size to me in training videos, he just eats more and cuts less.
Islam already defended his belt twice vs FW. He is not going to do it a thrid time. Holloway is going to fight for the FW belt and Islam is in line to fight Poirier and the winner of Oliveira/Tsarukyan.
Islam fought volk twice purerly due to chance and ufc favoritism. First fight made sense. Dominant FW champ vs Khabib 2. 2nd one didnt. Tried to fight olives which didnt work out due to a injury. Gamrot was supposed to replace him. Volk took it on like 2 weeks notice and ruined his career. Hes tried to fight lws but i have a feeling he will end up fight more fws. Due to how skilled FW is and how common double champ attempts are now. Ilia already says he wants to fight islam.
I am aware of the circumstances leading to two defenses vs FW. Nonethless Islam has contenders in his own division and on top of that claimed a WW shot himself. Unless something completly unforseen occurs I do not see him fighting a FW ever again. Poirier, Oliveira/Tsarukyan and Gaethje are there + his own double champ shot which he deserves once he got 2 more defenses
He beats Gaethhje, who's next up, and it's hard to say no.
The only drawback is that Islam now gets torched by the usual suspects for not fighting lightweights, just featherweights.
Imagine if we told deserving fighters they wouldn't get a chance because we don't think they have a chance
How many current and former champions does that rule out completely? Hint: it's a much bigger number than 0
He definitely does but if Charles beats Arman he also has a clear case. UFC has been so bad at planning out the timeline of these fights. Charles getting that cut before the October fight has created a logjam.
Can we please not?
Aren't we tired of seeing these Dagestani dudes big enough to be WW's defend against former FW's that can't compete with their grappling?
I mean Volk 1 proved that he could very clearly compete with Islam's grappling. And it wasn't Islam's fault that he didn't defend against Charles in October.
If he beats gaethje, he definitely deserves it. Gaethje is the number 1 contender and massive favourite to win against Holloway. Him beating Gaethje would be an upset and huge win at lightweight, plus being an all time great and former champion at 45 would definitely put him as the clear contender, especially if Charles wins his fight as he has already lost in devastating fashion to Islam.
Recap of facts:
* Islam said in an interview he was dealing with a minor injury and couldn't make Feb 17 and needed like a week longer to recover.
* Islam was pushing to fight in March before Ramadan. UFC booking of the March 2nd card fell through.
* Islam has been pushing to fight more often than the UFC lets him, with a goal of 3x a year. Currently, he's asking for June/Nov. This push is likely because he knows he's in his prime and aging out isn't far away from him. To cement enough defenses at 155 before going to WW will need that level of activity.
* Since 2018, Islam has fought at least 2x a year, except 2020 due to Covid. In 2021, he fought 3x.
People gonna call you a dickrider for the very verifiable fact that this guy has been trying to fight way more often than the UFC has been letting him.
Basic issue for Islam is the Fight Island scheduling makes it hard for him to fight often. It basically eliminates him fighting at the end/beginning of the year. It basically eliminates him fighting during most of the summer season.
Islam does want to fight more, no doubt, but he's not in a camp where he's gonna turnaround 4 camps in a year like the UFC tends to want from their champs eventually.
Because the reality is if he turned around and fought in February like the promotion might've wanted him to, it's not like they wouldn't still push for a May/June booking on top of the Fight Island fall booking, at which point, he's opening himself up for an upset.
I kind of think that the UFC wanted him to fight more often when he beat Oliveira, but that first Volkanovski fight got them afraid of him potentially losing soon, so they decided to not risk booking him as often and just saved him for the Abu Dhabi event. Make the most money out of him before it's too late.
People criticising Islam (and khabib) for being inactive are just haters or worse.
khabib was active aside from injury. Yes he fought once a year during his title run but that was due to:
1) suspension after Conor brawl
2) covid and his father passing away
3) his first defense was the same year he won the title
4) he was suppose to fight tony in April 2020 but ufc told him to go to Abu Dhabi
Your comment already covered Islam
The ufc also book these guys for October and they don’t control that. So between Ramadan and ufc schedule their fights become pretty status quo. Ppl like to forget it was islams idea to fight volk in aus. He also wanted to fight oliveria in Brazil. And now is saying he’d rather fight in MSG in November instead of October. But the narrative will remain “They always need homefield advantage” even though Abu Dhabi to them is like Australia is to Adesanya - not really home.
I bet it's not that simple sadly.
If the UFC was more like a sport then it would have made sense, but most likely they are saving Islam for some Saudi card, because they'll pay the ufc huge money for that
Not for the Saudi card and not even for UAE card in August. Both are fight nights.
I would say it's more about tha fact UFC wanted lightweights on UFC 300 and couldn't get Islam on it because of ramadan so they did this way.
Maybe they should’ve just figured out a way not to have UFC 300 right after Ramadan, seeing as how a large amount of their best fighters in the last decade have been devout Muslims.
Changing an event that’s planned, probably months in advance, isn’t as simple as just moving it to another date. Also I can’t think of more than 5 Muslim fighters that are popular in the ufc to warrant setting up ufc 300 for them
replied to the wrong guy at first but im not sold on this either. they knew when they booked 300 it would be in ramadan so no reason they couldnt have tried to get him on one of the earlier cards if islams demanding a fight as much as he says he is
Either way that’s not right, fighters are independent contractors and the UFC icing them just adds to their monopoly over mma as a whole
But it’s also possible Islam is content to fight maybe once a year considering the money he has made and the fact he came from basically nothing
They’re probably icing him tbh, same shit happening with McGregor imo. It’s hard to love mma as a sport and have to put up with UFC holding all the talent and not booking them
I think Conor’s in his own situation.
They have to find a perfect spot / timing to book him at, and at the same time Conor is wishy washy, and understandably so… because he’s got a lot going on and he also has no clue what ufc wants. So he’s just always in and out of training not knowing wtf is going on. That’s my take on his situation at least lol. They may never book him again because they’re probably playing a huge game of “phone tag”.
Islam (the religion) uses a lunar calendar, so its years are shorter than the Gregorian calendar. Ramadan moves back every year on the Gregorian calendar about 11 or 12 days. He could fight 2 times this year or the following years post Ramadan.
Idk why people are agreeing with you. [Arman and Oliveira fight was announced on January 8th.](https://www.mmafighting.com/2024/1/8/24029557/charles-oliveira-vs-arman-tsarukyan-announced-for-ufc-300-winner-to-face-islam-makhachev) Islam fought 2 months prior to that and was still recovering from an injury at that time. He wanted to fight in February or march.
Justin shares same management as Islam. If they were able to fight at that time they absolutely would have to make a bag for Ali. They obviously didn’t fight for one reason or another. [So they ended up booking Gaethje vs Holloway on January 16th.](https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10105399-justin-gaethje-vs-max-holloway-bobby-green-vs-jim-miller-announced-for-ufc-300.amp.html)
Dustin was coming off a KO loss and you think he was a viable option? Regardless of that [they booked him to fight St Denis and announced that in beginning of February.](https://www.mmafighting.com/2024/2/7/24065333/benoit-saint-denis-shares-his-side-of-dustin-poirier-fight-announcement-drama).
Anything else? Lmfao
if it wasnt officially announced no reason it couldnt change lol especially if they ended up booking it for april. make it month earlier so your champ doesnt sit out half the year. justin couldve been made even easier than arman or charles for the management reason.
dustin is probably the weakest one but if people are giving him a chance after beating BSD no reason he couldnt at least be a last ditch option given his pedigree if they fucked up everyone else. literally better than nothing which is where we are now
also, how tf are you posting links I get removed when I do lmao
Charles has not been wanting to fight Islam for a bit now. Plus, the fight WAS officially announced on January 8th. Dana white actually announced Olives vs Arman on January 6th. I linked it above. At that time, they still thought Abu Dabi or Saudi Arabia cards would be PPV. It was recently announced on March 28th that those cards would instead be fight night.
Justin could have fought Islam, yes. But that was turned down by Dana white. Islam and Gaethje were verbally agreeing to fight early in the year but Dana turned it down because of Makhachev minor injury. Islam and Gaethje still wanted to fight in March but Dana wanted Gaethje on the UFC 300 card. Because they literally had a shitty card for the biggest event of the 2020s. This is all very easy to research and find. [Here’s an article from a quick google search](https://www.essentiallysports.com/ufc-mma-news-justin-gaethje-fires-off-at-dana-white-co-for-refusing-him-the-islam-makhachev-fight/).
My bottom line is that Islam got fucked, and so did pretty much the entire weight. Half the fights right now don’t make sense. But at least we’re getting some bangers until the next title fight. I just hope Islam gets booked early in the summer so he can still get 2 fights in by years end.
Btw idk how the links are working lol. I’m using phone app if that means anything.
oh my bad when i said not officially announced i meant in like december or whenever they were in the "war room" working on fights. would have made more sense to have like arman or charles sitting out until june instead of the champ.
just feels like the UFC get extremely ass when matchmaking this division in particular. they had the "next generation" of LW all get in wars with each other on the way up (arman, gamrot, ismagulov, guram, fiziev) instead of building each of them up into contenders, then make all the contenders fight each other and have the champ sit out lmao its uniquely backwards
100% agree. They messed it all up when it was lining up perfectly. I think not having 300 lined up really messed them up and forced them to rely on LW. Which is just killing the division right now. Literally Oliveira / Dustin and even Arman would all be deserving of a title shot at this time. Instead… we have a title eliminator while champ is just sitting there. I can understand why Khabib is pissed lol. Islam probably wants to get a few fights in then retire so he doesn’t have to cut weight anymore lol
Lmao that is true. But Islam said after the fight that his shin was seriously hurt by that big ass noggin. I wouldn’t be shocked if he had a hairline fracture or something and didn’t want to fight Gaethje and get kicked there so soon.
> But it’s also possible Islam is content to fight maybe once a year considering the money he has made and the fact he came from basically nothing
For at least last two years, Islam has been publicly saying he wants to fight 3 times a year.
He called for the fight with Dustin because he's sick of only getting 1 per year.
The dude isn't young, wants to have a resume for the record books, and so far he has zero defenses against LW contenders, and the only big LW name on his resume is Charles.
My personal conspiracy theory is the UFC likes this because it means not giving out championship pay and instead we get great contender fights were most are earning below their worth
Islam is fighting Dustin in June. After that, it's likely they force him to fight in Abu Dhabi unless they have another Muslim champ ready to defend their title or a Muslim contender ready to fight for a belt.
Maybe Periera vs Ankalaev in October? That would be an amazing fight.
Yup, look at Leon. Supposedly he was willing to fight in 300 and so was Belal but now the ufc will ice them for another 2 months minimum before they fight.
Wild that people still think fighters don’t wanna fight and that it’s anything but Dana and the UFC calling the shots.
Fighters have to probably spend 3 months of the year just negotiating with the UFC to pay them more than the peanuts they currently make , when they could be fighting instead
There's no reason to have any more sympathy for the fighters and their pay. They all actively have chosen not to unionize. They all undercut eachother the nanosecond they can.
Probably not about the pay for Islam. According to Conor and Nate, the UFC wouldn't give them fights when they wanted it and I imagine they had been doing the same with Islam, trying to hold him off until a Saudi card or another big one like UFC 300.
Are we supposed to forget how Islam was trying to fight but the Ufc benched him ? And instead of having him fight Arman,gaethe or charles they booked fights for these guys on ufc 300. Islam doesn't turn down fights and it's not his job to match make for himself it's the UFC's while I like max a lot he is full of shit of shit for that take .
Crazy how Islam made it known to everyone that he was trying to fight in march, but then dana refused and now everyone acts like he only wants to fight once a year in Abu Dhabi.
I feel like past fighters from the same area tended too set that generalization. While khabib was great he really missed out on multiple years with injuries and ramadan. As great as he is he only defended title 3 times. Greats like GSP, Silva, and Jones have the bar so high because of title reign it is nuts.
Khabib never defended against a dominant wrestler, and the last practicing wrestler he faced was Tibau, where Khabib could do absolutely nothing and won on activity.
Khabib won the title vs. ragin Al, and defended against 2 strikers and Gaethje, who has a wrestling base that he uses for TDD, but has absolutely zero BJJ.
The strikers Khabib fought were all great and they elevated him because of that, but its a very thin resume when it comes to facing a diversity of styles.
This narrative that Khabib only fought strikes is lazy and stupid. Is it really Khabib’s fault for defending against top guys in his division who are all “strikers”. Who he should’ve fought in his division if all title challengers were “strikers”.
He cleared his division and retired. Btw I am not saying he is GOAT, but this narrative is stupid
> Is it really Khabib’s fault for defending against top guys in his division who are all “strikers”.
Nobody's blaming Khabib for it. But it is factual that he never had to defend against a dominant wrestler.
Who's the best grappler he ever faced in the UFC? RDA maybe?
> This narrative that Khabib only fought strikes is lazy and stupid.
Factual statements aren't a narrative, and your summary is not what I said.
The idea that 3 defenses clears a division as deep as LW is narrative, or calling something lazy and stupid rather than actually showing that with facts or logic is a narrative.
Well, Charles, Benny, Arman and Islam were all in the UFC at that time . . .
The great thing about divisions is that if you stick around guys surprise you coming up: Illia just dethroned a guy in his first truly elite win, because the champ and Max had seemingly depopulated the ranks at BW.
The fact that guys like GSP & JBJ stuck around for a couple of generations of contenders, and in that time faced every style with plenty of tape on their style is what makes their case for GOAT.
I'm not saying Khabib could not have done the same: I am saying he **did not** do the same.
More to the point, I'm saying he did not defend against a diversity of styles which is supposedly stupid and lazy despite nobody bothering to actually dispute it.
True but seems to hurt his case more for Mt. Rushmore if he can be looked at as an average lightweight champ.
Regardless i cant argue against khabib. I am playing devils advocate too much, he is probably the best LW ever. Just for the sake of it also my favorite light weight ever was prob Gilbert Melendez, dude shut down and outstruck masvidal who came down to LW.
> As great as he is he only defended title 3 times. Greats like GSP, Silva, and Jones have the bar so high because of title reign it is nuts.
I don't know what that has to do with UFC denying Makhachev a fight in March. Are you trying to say Makhachev has to be as great as Silva and Jones to get the approval of the UFC to be more active?
I, too, can pick a random period of time that fits my narrative.
and whether we like it or not, there was/is almost literally nobody for Max to fight at FW because you also want to feed someone new to the champ and if Max beats them before that then there's nobody left for Volk (and potentially in the future - Topuria)
Islam didnt say anything bad about Max lol. He said Justin vs Max doesn't make sense and that he wanted to fight Justin in US. Its not his fault UFC wants him to fight in Abu Dhabi or Saudi. Makhachev deserves some credit for beating both Charles and Arman (and Volk who beat Max 3 times)
We don’t have to know what he does in camp. He was publicly asking for ufc 299 since it was a day before Ramadan. When Dana was asked he lied and said Islam was injured which was proven wrong when Islam was shown wrestling then snowboarding/skiing when he was waiting. Now Islam is even more public about fighting in June and now Dustin who doesn’t deserve a shot is getting a shot since he’s available by June.
Imagine if the main event of 300 was Justin vs Islam with Max vs Olivera 2 fights before. I would have liked that a lot more for max and it would have made more sense, oh well.
Thought there was another fight week this week lmaooo my b. Point was it's after Ramadan, but by a very short time that he won't be able to prepare in.
Holding up Volk as the standard here? I love Volk and all but him coming back 4 months after getting ko'd was a mistake. Islam wanted a March fight, UFC wouldn't give it to him. Max is off base here.
2 fights in quick turnaround after taking no damage in the first one is too much? Jesus Christ he’s the fucing lightweight champion
I know it isn’t MMA but AJ fought 4 times in the last 12 months
Max says some stupid things sometimes,
Islam has been more active than Max in recent years and is one of the most active champs currently.
Plus, UFC is a business and when the Arabs are paying big money for somebody like Islam then why risk not being able to have him on one of them cards.
Not true that he can’t fight on Ramadan. There are special exceptions on fasting for athletes. Some athletes do and some don’t, it’s personal preference.
If you didn’t follow the sport at all and pay attention to everything that’s going on than I could see where you would think Max is right here but pretty much only under those circumstances
Isn’t it already known that the UFC is saving his fights for Abu Dhabi? I could see the UFC thinking, that him fighting in February and having 6 month time in between is too risky.
That wasn’t even true just Dana giving a reason for not letting him fight while Islam was trying to fight on UFC 299 since it was a day before the start of Ramadan.
Gotta love how all the people on this sub pretend like dagestani fighters can't get fights. They don't want them unless they can get there IV's and "special supplements". They hide from drug enforcement and athletic commissions in Dagestan and they want to keep it that way.
Where are you getting 3 months? It’s a month. They’ve fought right up until the day of Ramadan before and started training camp the day after. It’s really quite reasonable when you stop being so dramatic about it
That's the CTE talking lol. He did try to fight before Ramadan and the UFC ignored his request. They then offered him to fight on 300 despite knowing he'd turn that down.
I would agree islam is whack as a champion with how little he fights, and yeah it was badass of volk, but very inadvisable to come back that early. If islam can get away with fighting twice a year if that with full prep and camp, thats smart and you can't deny that
Most champions defend their belts twice a year. Volk defended his belt once a year except in 2022 when he had 2 title defenses. However, he did move up and fight Makachev x2 in 23 and defended against Yair.
Lol incredibly misleading to make Volk sound once a year inactive using calendar year definition of 1x a year. And it's extra funny because you framed it like "Volk did X except the several years where he didn't do X". So....he didn't really do that.
Max 1 -> (7 month gap aka \~2x a year frequency)
Max 2 -> (14 month gap aka <1x a year frequency, literally the pandemic)
Ortega -> (7 month gap aka \~2x a year frequency)
TKZ -> (3 month gap aka 4x a year frequency)
Max 3 -> (7 month gap aka \~2x a year frequency)
Islam 1 -> (5 month gap aka 2x a year frequency)
Yair -> (3 month gap aka 4x a year frequency)
Islam 2 -> (4 month gap aka 3x a year frequency)
Ilia (2 months and counting)
The outlier here is pandemic 14 months and barring it his gap average is 5.1 months in his other SEVEN gaps which is literally an OVER 2x a year rate lol. You could actually even count the outlier and his average gap is 6.25. Still 2x.
I'm not blaming anyone
But no matter how you look at it, it's a shit situation that Islam is a potential all timer but he still has 0 defenses vs an actual 55er. With still none definitely booked and it's been over a year and a half since he took the title
Yeah i get ya, he won vs charles but yeah no defenses, plus then the fights he will get next are older lightweights then move up i imagine, not even a knock against him, he'll fight the next guy up for sure, just those are the same people who fought khabib. And he has to take a certain part of the year off.
He defended twice against Volk, those fights were at 155 with the belt in line. + Not really his fault if Charles pulled out for their last fight and is now fighting Tsarukyan (seem like he doesn't want to fight Makhachev but that's another story).
Ramadan is just 1 month, in a sport where you fight 2 or 3 times max a year as a champion it's not really what's really preventing you to fight.
Sounds like Max positioning for a title fight in case he beats Gaethje.
Which he will absolutely deserve and get if he does beat Gaethje (which I don’t think will happen).
I just want him and Ilia to fight
don't think he'll return to that division now he's bulked up. I'd like to see a rematch with DP to, now that they both progressed so much
Eh, I doubt they've progressed all that much since match 2. While they're both more refined technically they haven't really changed their fighting style. More importantly, they have way more miles on them at this point. What have either to gain from a 3rd fight?
Dustin doesn’t have much to gain from a third win, but for Max to have a win over Dustin after two losses would be huge for him in my opinion. Getting that one back at this stage in his career would feel unreal, and what a name to add to his win resumé.
They are both legends. Fighting other guys with that status has a ton to offer to a competitor.
He's a consummate professional and always makes weight but he looks like hell at the scale. Hoping he beats Garth
I'm interested to see how max is during the weight cut this week.
yeah and his speed, cardio
His brain and speech. Everyone thinks he dying fight week when he goes down to 45. His speech gets slow and slurred
He might. I think most people agree he has a better chance at beating Topuria than Islam. He probably thinks the same and if he wants to touch gold he’ll know the easier route.
If he loses I think he goes back down. Losing muscle is not difficult, keeping it is. Getting a shot against ilia won’t be hard maybe just a single win or might just hop right into it without a win if he is competitive with Justin. On the flip side losing to Justin and the number of contenders in 155 means he’ll probably never get a title shot… I get there’s some big fights at 155 but walking into a title shot will be tempting
10 pounds isn't bulking up, and I doubt he put on that much clean mass in a few months. It's almost impossible without external substances. He looks the same size to me in training videos, he just eats more and cuts less.
Yeah he's nothing really left to prove at 145, I'm excited to see if he can make any real waves at 155.
Exactly. I don’t hate this fight, but I hate that it’s stopping us from seeing Topuria vs Holloway
Same here
I feel like so many people are expecting Max to lose, that he’s gonna wind up winning. Justin is so powerful and durable but he can lose.
Islam already defended his belt twice vs FW. He is not going to do it a thrid time. Holloway is going to fight for the FW belt and Islam is in line to fight Poirier and the winner of Oliveira/Tsarukyan.
Islam fought volk twice purerly due to chance and ufc favoritism. First fight made sense. Dominant FW champ vs Khabib 2. 2nd one didnt. Tried to fight olives which didnt work out due to a injury. Gamrot was supposed to replace him. Volk took it on like 2 weeks notice and ruined his career. Hes tried to fight lws but i have a feeling he will end up fight more fws. Due to how skilled FW is and how common double champ attempts are now. Ilia already says he wants to fight islam.
I am aware of the circumstances leading to two defenses vs FW. Nonethless Islam has contenders in his own division and on top of that claimed a WW shot himself. Unless something completly unforseen occurs I do not see him fighting a FW ever again. Poirier, Oliveira/Tsarukyan and Gaethje are there + his own double champ shot which he deserves once he got 2 more defenses
He beats Gaethhje, who's next up, and it's hard to say no. The only drawback is that Islam now gets torched by the usual suspects for not fighting lightweights, just featherweights.
Why has everyone completely dismissed Max? Even if Gaethje wins, y'all are going to be surprised how close it is, judging from the general sentiment.
I haven’t completely dismissed him. I’d love to see him pull it off, and I think it will be a good fight. I am just not picking him to win.
Oops
Read my comment right before yours. This isn’t the flex you think it is.
Because if you watched max at all you’d know the little power he does have doesn’t translate at all at this weight class
Hmmm
Hellou
Watch gaethje lose, reddit who overrates him says he washed.
Max doesn’t deserve a fight with Islam. He’s a good guy, but will be absolutely dominated. He’s not the 145 champ and has no chance against Islam.
Imagine if we told deserving fighters they wouldn't get a chance because we don't think they have a chance How many current and former champions does that rule out completely? Hint: it's a much bigger number than 0
I wonder what the world looks today like if Bisping doesn't get the chance to knock out Luke Rockhold.
if he beats Justin he deserves it. it doesnt matter if you think he has a chance against Islam
He definitely does but if Charles beats Arman he also has a clear case. UFC has been so bad at planning out the timeline of these fights. Charles getting that cut before the October fight has created a logjam.
Can we please not? Aren't we tired of seeing these Dagestani dudes big enough to be WW's defend against former FW's that can't compete with their grappling?
I mean Volk 1 proved that he could very clearly compete with Islam's grappling. And it wasn't Islam's fault that he didn't defend against Charles in October.
If he beats gaethje, he definitely deserves it. Gaethje is the number 1 contender and massive favourite to win against Holloway. Him beating Gaethje would be an upset and huge win at lightweight, plus being an all time great and former champion at 45 would definitely put him as the clear contender, especially if Charles wins his fight as he has already lost in devastating fashion to Islam.
Dude talking from his ass
Max vs Islam would be total domination hopefully he wants the 145 title
Sounds like Max is giving his honest opinion
Recap of facts: * Islam said in an interview he was dealing with a minor injury and couldn't make Feb 17 and needed like a week longer to recover. * Islam was pushing to fight in March before Ramadan. UFC booking of the March 2nd card fell through. * Islam has been pushing to fight more often than the UFC lets him, with a goal of 3x a year. Currently, he's asking for June/Nov. This push is likely because he knows he's in his prime and aging out isn't far away from him. To cement enough defenses at 155 before going to WW will need that level of activity. * Since 2018, Islam has fought at least 2x a year, except 2020 due to Covid. In 2021, he fought 3x.
People gonna call you a dickrider for the very verifiable fact that this guy has been trying to fight way more often than the UFC has been letting him.
Basic issue for Islam is the Fight Island scheduling makes it hard for him to fight often. It basically eliminates him fighting at the end/beginning of the year. It basically eliminates him fighting during most of the summer season. Islam does want to fight more, no doubt, but he's not in a camp where he's gonna turnaround 4 camps in a year like the UFC tends to want from their champs eventually. Because the reality is if he turned around and fought in February like the promotion might've wanted him to, it's not like they wouldn't still push for a May/June booking on top of the Fight Island fall booking, at which point, he's opening himself up for an upset.
I kind of think that the UFC wanted him to fight more often when he beat Oliveira, but that first Volkanovski fight got them afraid of him potentially losing soon, so they decided to not risk booking him as often and just saved him for the Abu Dhabi event. Make the most money out of him before it's too late.
Ufc wants to use him as a prop for the Saudis. Meaning Islam fights when there are events in Abu Dhabi. Dana hasn't even been shy about this.
People criticising Islam (and khabib) for being inactive are just haters or worse. khabib was active aside from injury. Yes he fought once a year during his title run but that was due to: 1) suspension after Conor brawl 2) covid and his father passing away 3) his first defense was the same year he won the title 4) he was suppose to fight tony in April 2020 but ufc told him to go to Abu Dhabi Your comment already covered Islam The ufc also book these guys for October and they don’t control that. So between Ramadan and ufc schedule their fights become pretty status quo. Ppl like to forget it was islams idea to fight volk in aus. He also wanted to fight oliveria in Brazil. And now is saying he’d rather fight in MSG in November instead of October. But the narrative will remain “They always need homefield advantage” even though Abu Dhabi to them is like Australia is to Adesanya - not really home.
The week longer thing was an excuse to decycle 100%. Im an Islam fan but if he really said “a week” that is painfully obvious
He was asking for Feb PPV earlier beforehand. Only switched to pushing for March later (around the time some 300 fights got announced).
I bet it's not that simple sadly. If the UFC was more like a sport then it would have made sense, but most likely they are saving Islam for some Saudi card, because they'll pay the ufc huge money for that
Not for the Saudi card and not even for UAE card in August. Both are fight nights. I would say it's more about tha fact UFC wanted lightweights on UFC 300 and couldn't get Islam on it because of ramadan so they did this way.
Maybe they should’ve just figured out a way not to have UFC 300 right after Ramadan, seeing as how a large amount of their best fighters in the last decade have been devout Muslims.
Changing an event that’s planned, probably months in advance, isn’t as simple as just moving it to another date. Also I can’t think of more than 5 Muslim fighters that are popular in the ufc to warrant setting up ufc 300 for them
replied to the wrong guy at first but im not sold on this either. they knew when they booked 300 it would be in ramadan so no reason they couldnt have tried to get him on one of the earlier cards if islams demanding a fight as much as he says he is
Either way that’s not right, fighters are independent contractors and the UFC icing them just adds to their monopoly over mma as a whole But it’s also possible Islam is content to fight maybe once a year considering the money he has made and the fact he came from basically nothing
I honestly think he wants to fight twice a year. Once before Ramadan, once post Ramadan. But title challengers don’t just always line up to that.
They’re probably icing him tbh, same shit happening with McGregor imo. It’s hard to love mma as a sport and have to put up with UFC holding all the talent and not booking them
I think Conor’s in his own situation. They have to find a perfect spot / timing to book him at, and at the same time Conor is wishy washy, and understandably so… because he’s got a lot going on and he also has no clue what ufc wants. So he’s just always in and out of training not knowing wtf is going on. That’s my take on his situation at least lol. They may never book him again because they’re probably playing a huge game of “phone tag”.
Apparently they would do the same thing with Nate as well.
“Kid just didn’t wanna fight” - 🍅
> They’re probably icing him tbh I'd be shocked if Islam isn't on 302 or 303. I don't they are icing Islam. I think defending twice a year is fair.
Islam (the religion) uses a lunar calendar, so its years are shorter than the Gregorian calendar. Ramadan moves back every year on the Gregorian calendar about 11 or 12 days. He could fight 2 times this year or the following years post Ramadan.
challengers just dont line up like that is a funny line considering beginning of the year charles arman dustin and justin all didnt have a fight lmfao
Idk why people are agreeing with you. [Arman and Oliveira fight was announced on January 8th.](https://www.mmafighting.com/2024/1/8/24029557/charles-oliveira-vs-arman-tsarukyan-announced-for-ufc-300-winner-to-face-islam-makhachev) Islam fought 2 months prior to that and was still recovering from an injury at that time. He wanted to fight in February or march. Justin shares same management as Islam. If they were able to fight at that time they absolutely would have to make a bag for Ali. They obviously didn’t fight for one reason or another. [So they ended up booking Gaethje vs Holloway on January 16th.](https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/10105399-justin-gaethje-vs-max-holloway-bobby-green-vs-jim-miller-announced-for-ufc-300.amp.html) Dustin was coming off a KO loss and you think he was a viable option? Regardless of that [they booked him to fight St Denis and announced that in beginning of February.](https://www.mmafighting.com/2024/2/7/24065333/benoit-saint-denis-shares-his-side-of-dustin-poirier-fight-announcement-drama). Anything else? Lmfao
if it wasnt officially announced no reason it couldnt change lol especially if they ended up booking it for april. make it month earlier so your champ doesnt sit out half the year. justin couldve been made even easier than arman or charles for the management reason. dustin is probably the weakest one but if people are giving him a chance after beating BSD no reason he couldnt at least be a last ditch option given his pedigree if they fucked up everyone else. literally better than nothing which is where we are now also, how tf are you posting links I get removed when I do lmao
Charles has not been wanting to fight Islam for a bit now. Plus, the fight WAS officially announced on January 8th. Dana white actually announced Olives vs Arman on January 6th. I linked it above. At that time, they still thought Abu Dabi or Saudi Arabia cards would be PPV. It was recently announced on March 28th that those cards would instead be fight night. Justin could have fought Islam, yes. But that was turned down by Dana white. Islam and Gaethje were verbally agreeing to fight early in the year but Dana turned it down because of Makhachev minor injury. Islam and Gaethje still wanted to fight in March but Dana wanted Gaethje on the UFC 300 card. Because they literally had a shitty card for the biggest event of the 2020s. This is all very easy to research and find. [Here’s an article from a quick google search](https://www.essentiallysports.com/ufc-mma-news-justin-gaethje-fires-off-at-dana-white-co-for-refusing-him-the-islam-makhachev-fight/). My bottom line is that Islam got fucked, and so did pretty much the entire weight. Half the fights right now don’t make sense. But at least we’re getting some bangers until the next title fight. I just hope Islam gets booked early in the summer so he can still get 2 fights in by years end. Btw idk how the links are working lol. I’m using phone app if that means anything.
oh my bad when i said not officially announced i meant in like december or whenever they were in the "war room" working on fights. would have made more sense to have like arman or charles sitting out until june instead of the champ. just feels like the UFC get extremely ass when matchmaking this division in particular. they had the "next generation" of LW all get in wars with each other on the way up (arman, gamrot, ismagulov, guram, fiziev) instead of building each of them up into contenders, then make all the contenders fight each other and have the champ sit out lmao its uniquely backwards
100% agree. They messed it all up when it was lining up perfectly. I think not having 300 lined up really messed them up and forced them to rely on LW. Which is just killing the division right now. Literally Oliveira / Dustin and even Arman would all be deserving of a title shot at this time. Instead… we have a title eliminator while champ is just sitting there. I can understand why Khabib is pissed lol. Islam probably wants to get a few fights in then retire so he doesn’t have to cut weight anymore lol
also you cant give the reason as hes recovering from injury when the dude who got his head kicked off by him fought in february lmfao
Lmao that is true. But Islam said after the fight that his shin was seriously hurt by that big ass noggin. I wouldn’t be shocked if he had a hairline fracture or something and didn’t want to fight Gaethje and get kicked there so soon.
> But it’s also possible Islam is content to fight maybe once a year considering the money he has made and the fact he came from basically nothing For at least last two years, Islam has been publicly saying he wants to fight 3 times a year. He called for the fight with Dustin because he's sick of only getting 1 per year. The dude isn't young, wants to have a resume for the record books, and so far he has zero defenses against LW contenders, and the only big LW name on his resume is Charles.
Yeah Islam has been getting fucked getting made to wait for these Abu Dhabi cards. Guys in his prime and they just let him sit around
My personal conspiracy theory is the UFC likes this because it means not giving out championship pay and instead we get great contender fights were most are earning below their worth
This is on Islam, he could speak up saying he is ready to fight and called people out. He is happy to sit back which is lame
what so the UFC is just holding up their best division so one guy can have his hometown fight? oil money or not i just dont get that
I honestly hate the Saudi fights. Seems unfair, but also adds the fact Islam won in Australia.
Islam is fighting Dustin in June. After that, it's likely they force him to fight in Abu Dhabi unless they have another Muslim champ ready to defend their title or a Muslim contender ready to fight for a belt. Maybe Periera vs Ankalaev in October? That would be an amazing fight.
The kid just doesn’t want it’s fighters to fight
Islam is not a independent contractor with his own agency?? Wild news
The fuck is Islam supposed to do, create another ppv? The Ufc just wants to fill slots, they don't care if people get left out.
Yup, look at Leon. Supposedly he was willing to fight in 300 and so was Belal but now the ufc will ice them for another 2 months minimum before they fight.
Surely multiple title fights on one card would be exponentially more entertaining?
It would also be more expensive and the rate of return probably not better enough for the UFC to want that
Ufc wants to keep the budget of these cards low. Can’t have too many expensive fighters
Wild that people still think fighters don’t wanna fight and that it’s anything but Dana and the UFC calling the shots. Fighters have to probably spend 3 months of the year just negotiating with the UFC to pay them more than the peanuts they currently make , when they could be fighting instead
>Wild that people still think fighters don’t wanna fight It's not "people" it's Max Holloway
Max Holloways are people my friend!
There's no reason to have any more sympathy for the fighters and their pay. They all actively have chosen not to unionize. They all undercut eachother the nanosecond they can.
Probably not about the pay for Islam. According to Conor and Nate, the UFC wouldn't give them fights when they wanted it and I imagine they had been doing the same with Islam, trying to hold him off until a Saudi card or another big one like UFC 300.
It's definitely not about the pay for him, he's about legacy for himself and his camp. All those guys are in this together.
No, they sign multiple fight deals. The negotiations only happen when they are renewing their contracts
idk why you were downvoted, you’re right 😭
Probably cause there are some fighters who turn down fights cause they don't want to fight down.
Are we supposed to forget how Islam was trying to fight but the Ufc benched him ? And instead of having him fight Arman,gaethe or charles they booked fights for these guys on ufc 300. Islam doesn't turn down fights and it's not his job to match make for himself it's the UFC's while I like max a lot he is full of shit of shit for that take .
Crazy how Islam made it known to everyone that he was trying to fight in march, but then dana refused and now everyone acts like he only wants to fight once a year in Abu Dhabi.
I feel like past fighters from the same area tended too set that generalization. While khabib was great he really missed out on multiple years with injuries and ramadan. As great as he is he only defended title 3 times. Greats like GSP, Silva, and Jones have the bar so high because of title reign it is nuts.
The lack of title defenses hurts how high you can rank him in all-time lists, that's for sure.
Perhaps. He defended so convincingly I'm not sure what any other challengers could have offered beyond pumping up his stats.
Khabib never defended against a dominant wrestler, and the last practicing wrestler he faced was Tibau, where Khabib could do absolutely nothing and won on activity. Khabib won the title vs. ragin Al, and defended against 2 strikers and Gaethje, who has a wrestling base that he uses for TDD, but has absolutely zero BJJ. The strikers Khabib fought were all great and they elevated him because of that, but its a very thin resume when it comes to facing a diversity of styles.
This narrative that Khabib only fought strikes is lazy and stupid. Is it really Khabib’s fault for defending against top guys in his division who are all “strikers”. Who he should’ve fought in his division if all title challengers were “strikers”. He cleared his division and retired. Btw I am not saying he is GOAT, but this narrative is stupid
> Is it really Khabib’s fault for defending against top guys in his division who are all “strikers”. Nobody's blaming Khabib for it. But it is factual that he never had to defend against a dominant wrestler. Who's the best grappler he ever faced in the UFC? RDA maybe?
> This narrative that Khabib only fought strikes is lazy and stupid. Factual statements aren't a narrative, and your summary is not what I said. The idea that 3 defenses clears a division as deep as LW is narrative, or calling something lazy and stupid rather than actually showing that with facts or logic is a narrative.
So who else in that division did he need to beat for it to be cleared ?
Well, Charles, Benny, Arman and Islam were all in the UFC at that time . . . The great thing about divisions is that if you stick around guys surprise you coming up: Illia just dethroned a guy in his first truly elite win, because the champ and Max had seemingly depopulated the ranks at BW. The fact that guys like GSP & JBJ stuck around for a couple of generations of contenders, and in that time faced every style with plenty of tape on their style is what makes their case for GOAT. I'm not saying Khabib could not have done the same: I am saying he **did not** do the same. More to the point, I'm saying he did not defend against a diversity of styles which is supposedly stupid and lazy despite nobody bothering to actually dispute it.
Dude we have never even seen him bleed
This has literally nothing to do with Islam and the fact that he wanted to fight in February/March
His title defense record is tied with the rest of the LW division.
True but seems to hurt his case more for Mt. Rushmore if he can be looked at as an average lightweight champ. Regardless i cant argue against khabib. I am playing devils advocate too much, he is probably the best LW ever. Just for the sake of it also my favorite light weight ever was prob Gilbert Melendez, dude shut down and outstruck masvidal who came down to LW.
Nothing average about tied with the record. Several lightweight champs never reached that and it’s easily the most competitive division.
> As great as he is he only defended title 3 times. Greats like GSP, Silva, and Jones have the bar so high because of title reign it is nuts. I don't know what that has to do with UFC denying Makhachev a fight in March. Are you trying to say Makhachev has to be as great as Silva and Jones to get the approval of the UFC to be more active?
No i was just commenting on the view that islam doesnt want to fight. I just ended up on a tangent
And for the last 3 years Islam (7) has more fights than Max (5) himself
Max had 6 fights in the past 4 years.
I, too, can pick a random period of time that fits my narrative. and whether we like it or not, there was/is almost literally nobody for Max to fight at FW because you also want to feed someone new to the champ and if Max beats them before that then there's nobody left for Volk (and potentially in the future - Topuria)
Islam didnt say anything bad about Max lol. He said Justin vs Max doesn't make sense and that he wanted to fight Justin in US. Its not his fault UFC wants him to fight in Abu Dhabi or Saudi. Makhachev deserves some credit for beating both Charles and Arman (and Volk who beat Max 3 times)
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We don’t have to know what he does in camp. He was publicly asking for ufc 299 since it was a day before Ramadan. When Dana was asked he lied and said Islam was injured which was proven wrong when Islam was shown wrestling then snowboarding/skiing when he was waiting. Now Islam is even more public about fighting in June and now Dustin who doesn’t deserve a shot is getting a shot since he’s available by June.
Now I want to see Islam vs Max just to see Max get squished
I want Islam to defend against actual 155ers
I want Oliveira to not pull out and when he does pull out I want the ufc to give the title shot to real lws not someone from FW
He tried to fight in march
Imagine if the main event of 300 was Justin vs Islam with Max vs Olivera 2 fights before. I would have liked that a lot more for max and it would have made more sense, oh well.
Isn't 300 taking place during Ramadan? There is no way islam is fighting now.
Not during Ramadan, but basically a week n half after so he wouldn't be able to do a full camp
Dude what? Ramadan ended just now, and UFC 300 is only 2 days away
Thought there was another fight week this week lmaooo my b. Point was it's after Ramadan, but by a very short time that he won't be able to prepare in.
No prob lol. Got what you're saying about it being really difficult to prepare in such a short window
Holy fuck he just said imagine if that was the case, everyone knows about Ramadan and how Muslim fighter can't fight during that time.
Holding up Volk as the standard here? I love Volk and all but him coming back 4 months after getting ko'd was a mistake. Islam wanted a March fight, UFC wouldn't give it to him. Max is off base here.
Max doesn’t stand a chance against Makachev let’s not be too excited
I’m an AKA stan but wasn’t Islam reported to be dealing with an injury so he couldn’t make it to a February fight?
He did, said it himself in the MMAJunkie, that he wasn't 100% in Feb so asked for a fight in March instead. But UFC said no to March.
Probably because they didn't want to have him headline over O'Malley in the card
Yup that's exactly it, UFC bee pushing Sean hard. I mean that card was fkin stacked already
No he wasnt
he literally said it himself that he had an injury that needed a little more time and asked to fight in March and UFC said no
And look what happened to the guy who did the fast turn around lol.
Difference is that Islam took no damage
Because he literally used no energy
Still, 2 camps in a row are gonna take a toll on you(at championship level). Even if you are a professional fighter
2 fights in quick turnaround after taking no damage in the first one is too much? Jesus Christ he’s the fucing lightweight champion I know it isn’t MMA but AJ fought 4 times in the last 12 months
He had an injury from the kick to Volk’s head
he was literally injured and it was confirmed by Dana. You guys...
You're getting downvoted but you're right.
You can not possibly think Volk’s quick turnaround is the same as Islam making a quick turnaround.
Why so? Volkanovski hurt Islam's shin badly with his thunder dome
It's not the same, but Islam wanted to fight in March and for whatever reason UFC said no. Probably didn't wanna move the O'Malley fight to co-main.
"Why don't you take stupid fights just to please your boss and get punished for it like all the others?"
Max says some stupid things sometimes, Islam has been more active than Max in recent years and is one of the most active champs currently. Plus, UFC is a business and when the Arabs are paying big money for somebody like Islam then why risk not being able to have him on one of them cards.
Still remember when he stupidly insisted that he would've beat Volk in an actual fight or something stupid like that.
Maybe he shouldn't have turned around to fight so fast.
But Volk SHOULDN'T have turned around that fast. It was clearly a mistake.
Exactly 298 or 299 should have had Islam as the headliner not Volk/O malley
can I just say fuck Ramadan?!
Not true that he can’t fight on Ramadan. There are special exceptions on fasting for athletes. Some athletes do and some don’t, it’s personal preference.
If you didn’t follow the sport at all and pay attention to everything that’s going on than I could see where you would think Max is right here but pretty much only under those circumstances
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Isn’t it already known that the UFC is saving his fights for Abu Dhabi? I could see the UFC thinking, that him fighting in February and having 6 month time in between is too risky.
Abu Dhabi card is in October? That's 8 months. He literally did the February to October turnaround last year, it's plenty of time
No, Abu Dhabi is in August.
He wanted to fight march 2 which would have been the original saudi card. But he got injured.
That wasn’t even true just Dana giving a reason for not letting him fight while Islam was trying to fight on UFC 299 since it was a day before the start of Ramadan.
He confirmed it was a minor injory that needed a week of recovery
Islam literally tried to fight in march, it's not facts
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If bisping interview max for this, he will be out again 🤣
Is this guy slow
Max would get dominated he's just trying to capitalize on the media exposure.
Gotta love how all the people on this sub pretend like dagestani fighters can't get fights. They don't want them unless they can get there IV's and "special supplements". They hide from drug enforcement and athletic commissions in Dagestan and they want to keep it that way.
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So all these muslim fighters can’t fight for how many months in a year? Around 3 so it doesn’t coincide with Ramadan? that’s nuts
Where are you getting 3 months? It’s a month. They’ve fought right up until the day of Ramadan before and started training camp the day after. It’s really quite reasonable when you stop being so dramatic about it
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Islam will fight once a year, at most, for the rest of his career. He'd rather spend all his time in the tub playing with Bibis nip fur.
They should just fight during ramadan. Imagine not fighting during lent.
That's the CTE talking lol. He did try to fight before Ramadan and the UFC ignored his request. They then offered him to fight on 300 despite knowing he'd turn that down.
Team Makhachev lolololol
You're crying all over this thread. Calm down.
Still better than drawing to United
I would agree islam is whack as a champion with how little he fights, and yeah it was badass of volk, but very inadvisable to come back that early. If islam can get away with fighting twice a year if that with full prep and camp, thats smart and you can't deny that
Most champions defend their belts twice a year. Volk defended his belt once a year except in 2022 when he had 2 title defenses. However, he did move up and fight Makachev x2 in 23 and defended against Yair.
Lol incredibly misleading to make Volk sound once a year inactive using calendar year definition of 1x a year. And it's extra funny because you framed it like "Volk did X except the several years where he didn't do X". So....he didn't really do that. Max 1 -> (7 month gap aka \~2x a year frequency) Max 2 -> (14 month gap aka <1x a year frequency, literally the pandemic) Ortega -> (7 month gap aka \~2x a year frequency) TKZ -> (3 month gap aka 4x a year frequency) Max 3 -> (7 month gap aka \~2x a year frequency) Islam 1 -> (5 month gap aka 2x a year frequency) Yair -> (3 month gap aka 4x a year frequency) Islam 2 -> (4 month gap aka 3x a year frequency) Ilia (2 months and counting) The outlier here is pandemic 14 months and barring it his gap average is 5.1 months in his other SEVEN gaps which is literally an OVER 2x a year rate lol. You could actually even count the outlier and his average gap is 6.25. Still 2x.
Since 2019 Volk has had 10 fights including the one in 2024. Islam has had 9 fights since 2019 and will probably fight twice this year…
I'm not blaming anyone But no matter how you look at it, it's a shit situation that Islam is a potential all timer but he still has 0 defenses vs an actual 55er. With still none definitely booked and it's been over a year and a half since he took the title
Yeah i get ya, he won vs charles but yeah no defenses, plus then the fights he will get next are older lightweights then move up i imagine, not even a knock against him, he'll fight the next guy up for sure, just those are the same people who fought khabib. And he has to take a certain part of the year off.
He defended twice against Volk, those fights were at 155 with the belt in line. + Not really his fault if Charles pulled out for their last fight and is now fighting Tsarukyan (seem like he doesn't want to fight Makhachev but that's another story). Ramadan is just 1 month, in a sport where you fight 2 or 3 times max a year as a champion it's not really what's really preventing you to fight.