Will Makhachev Fight Belal Muhammad?

UFC Lightweight Champion Islam Makhachev has made some comments hinting that he would not rule out a fight with Belal Muhammad.

Makhachev defended his UFC Lightweight title by beating Dustin Pourier in his last fight at UFC 302. He secured the victory via a fifth-round submission, the third successful defence of his title. He got the belt initially after beating Charles Oliveira. Makhachev has repeatedly spoken about his desire to win a title in another weight class. He is scheduled to face Arman Tsarukyan in a rematch of their 2019 fight at UFC 311. The clash takes place on January 18 after it was delayed following Makhachev’s injury after the Poirier win. A victory for Islam will leave question marks over his next fight. Makhachev has already dismissed a fight with UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria. 

The Georgian stopped Max Holloway in his last fight at UFC 308, giving him the first stoppage defeat of his career. Since then, Topuria has stated that he would like to move up to lightweight and target a fight with Islam. But the latter has not shown any interest in that fight. He does not want to give smaller fighters any chances following his two wins over Alexander Volkanovski, who failed to beat him after moving up from featherweight. 

The problem with moving up to welterweight is the close association between Islam’s camp and Belal. Belal has previously trained with Khabib. Khabib was in Islam’s corner for his victory against Poirier the last time around. Khabib is already on record, saying he does not want this fight to happen. He was also very vocal about how beating Belal would be extremely difficult. 

Islam Vs. Belal

“If they had asked me to fight with Belal when I was an active fighter, (I would have said) no. But for example, Belal and Islam, OK, you have to talk with them. My heart – my heart is not OK. It would be hard to prepare Islam to beat Belal. I don’t think that it’s ever going to happen. For me, it’s going to be very hard to prepare somebody to beat Belal.If you want to beat Belal, I think you have to stop him.

“Without a stoppage, it’s going to be very hard. What are you going to do? OK, if you take him down, it’s very hard to control him for 25 minutes, first of all. Second, it’s very hard to dominate him on striking game in all 25 minutes because he mixes it up. He doesn’t stay with you all 25 minutes. [And] he wrestles and strike, wrestle and strike. [And] he is good,” Khabib said

But Belal is the UFC Welterweight Champion following his UFC 304 win over Leon Edwards. That leaves Makhachev with a big decision over what he does next. His coach, Javier Mendez, has already said his fighter could retire in two years when he is 35. So the question remains: will Islam face off against Belal? His following comments suggest he could. 

“I’m looking behind Arman [Tsarukyan]. If I beat him, I don’t know. I’m tired [of[ giving somebody [a] rematch, you know? I need a second belt [below] there. We’ll see. A lot of good fighters,” Islam said