Jun 1, 2024; Newark, New Jersey, USA; Islam Makhachev (red gloves) fights Dustin Poirier (blue gloves) during UFC 302 at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

Islam Makhachev explains why just one American UFC champ exists and he could be right

Originally posted on MMA on SI | By Zain Bando | Last updated Aug 26, 2025 9:03 AM ET

Former UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev is still bleak about the current status of the UFC landscape regarding its current champions.

Makhachev was recently asked about the promotion's current iteration of male champions, a group of fighters that have one surprising fact in common: none of them reside from the United States, the country in which the UFC was founded nearly 32 years ago in while its headquarters still reside in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In an interview with Islam Babadzhanov of Ushatayka, Makhachev says the international flair of the promotion's champions should be embraced as a positive across the MMA community.

Islam Makhachev explains why there are no American champions in the UFC today:

"They just started signing more of our guys, that's the reason... our guys live for this sport. In the USA, for example, they don't worry even if they competed bad.

Behind our guys there is a family,… pic.twitter.com/tITWJEw6n7
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) August 24, 2025

Islam Makhachev Gets Honest About UFC Champs

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"They just started signing more of our guys, that's the reason," Makhachev said.

Makhachev says a sizable shift regarding international talent has much to do with it, too. The ex-champ predicts the number will continue to grow over the next five-to-10 years or so.

"Well, if [the UFC] keeps signing [more fighters], I'm 100 percent sure there will be more champs [from the Caucasus region],: Makhachev added. "From the Caucasus, Dagestan, Chechnya. No brainer, our guys live for this sport. In the USA, for example, they don't worry even if they [compete badly]."

Makhachev suggests that when Russian fighters are doing well, there is a "family" atmosphere that keeps the group hungry to win at all costs.

"Behind our guys, there is a family, the whole city, the whole Republic," Makhachev said. "And he [the fighter who wins] feels this responsibility, and goes out with full responsibility and wins."

Makhachev was one of eight male UFC champions before moving to welterweight earlier this year. At present, Alexandre Pantoja (flyweight, Brazil), Merab Dvalishvili (bantamweight, Georgia), Alexander Volkanovski (featherweight, Australia), Illia Topuria (lightweight, Georgia), Jack Della Maddalena (welterweight, Australia), Khamzat Chimaev (middleweight, Chechnya), Magomed Ankalaev (light heavyweight, Russia) and Tom Aspinall (heavyweight, England) make up the current influx of men's champions.

The last American-born champion to claim gold was Jon Jones, who held the UFC Heavyweight Championship from March 2023 to this past June before undergoing a brief retirement that lasted just under a month.

Whether multiple American champions will hold titles in the UFC again remains to be seen, but it's clear the international flavor of MMA's best fighters couldn't be more apparent.

Will Cory Sandhagen Break UFC's U.S. Champion Drought?

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The next American to get a shot at winning a UFC title is Cory Sandhagen who fights Dvalishvili in the co-main event of UFC 320 in October. The event's headliner sees a rematch between Ankalaev and former champion Alex Pereira, as Pereira attempts to win his belt back.