Khabib Nurmagomedov was undefeated and retired with a perfect 29-10 record. He is widely regarded as one of the best lightweight fighters in UFC history.
After Nurmagomedov I walked away from fighting in 2020, the attention turned to his training partner and friend, Islam Makhachev, who many in MMA have suggested could be even better than ‘The Eagle’.
Makhachev defeated Charles Oliveira on Saturday night to win the lightweight title UFC 280After putting together a dominant run.
To get to this point, the 31-year old has won 11 consecutive fights against top competitors such as Bobby Green and Dan Hooker.
However, despite his dominance, Makhahcev will never truly replicate Nurmagomedov’s achievements inside the Octagon as he has already tasted defeat during his career.
The Russian fighter was matched against Adriano Martins at UFC 192 in 2015. He lost a shock bout.
Makhachev tried standing with the Brazilian in round one of their fight but was punished when he ran into an enormous right hand that sent Makhachev crashing to the ground.
Martins responded with one ground strike, which knocked him out cold. The referee stopped the fight. The young prospect quickly regained consciousness. He began to wonder why the fight was stopped.
After that, Makahechev became one of the best defensive fighters in the UFC and he’s been able to rack up 11 wins while taking next to no damage.
American Kickboxing Academy’s star said that his one career loss taught him a lot about fighting and made him realize that he was not invincible.
“That moment, I [was] just thinking, ‘Nobody can stop me,’” Makhachev told TSNAbout his fight against Martins before UFC 280.
“When fight is beginning, I try to push my opponents, try to go always forward, land some hard punch. You know, this is MMA. I learned a lot after this fight.”
“After this fight, I just start slowly my fights. You can feel the distance and all of these things.
“Before, when they start, I just go forward, try to take them down, don’t think about the plan, but now I take it slow. “
Makhachev is now 23-0 in professional MMA fights. Oliveira, a step up, made the fight seem easy.
Many were wondering how Khabib’s student would cope with the serious step up in competition against someone who is not only handy on the feet but also has a wicked submission game.
He proved them wrong.
