Islam Makhachev says the end is coming, and his mother will be the one who calls it.
The UFC welterweight champion spoke to Red Corner MMA at the Sambo World Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and admitted his mom has never been a fan of the day job. “My mother has always been against me fighting,” Makhachev said. “I’ve always listened to my mother, so soon I will obey her word.”
MMA Fighting picked up the interview Friday. The word soon is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, because Makhachev wouldn’t attach a date or a fight count to it. “There’s no number,” he said. He described himself as just reaching the finish line and said there aren’t many things left in the sport that could motivate him, which is about as blunt as a 35-year-old champion gets about his own interest level.
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If this sounds familiar, it should. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Makhachev’s mentor and close friend, retired in October 2020 after beating Justin Gaethje for his third straight lightweight title defense, finishing at 29-0. Afterward he said he’d promised his mother he was done, following the death of his father, the legendary coach Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
The résumé
Makhachev is 29-1 with 17 straight wins, a run that started after he lost to Adriano Martins in his second UFC fight. He holds the lightweight record for consecutive successful title defenses with four. Then he moved up and defended the welterweight belt for the first time by beating Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330 in August.
What’s next
His next challenger comes out of an interim title fight between Carlos Prates and Michael Morales at UFC 336 in January. Makhachev has taken criticism for not fighting either man himself and letting them thin the herd first. He didn’t sound worried about whoever’s left standing.
“They are both good,” he said. “They are both punchers. Although, I wouldn’t say either of them is a threat for me. I am a bad matchup for them stylistically.”
He said both men deserve a title shot and he wants to see “which of them is more deserving.” His bigger gripe is the lineup itself. He wants contenders, he said, but he doesn’t “see any new names.”
My take: I’ve never liked interim belts, and this one bugs me more than most. A champion who openly says he’s at the finish line, with his mother waiting to tell him to stop, is spending January as a spectator while two guys fight over a placeholder strap. If the clock is this short, every month he sits out is a month he doesn’t get back. Prates or Morales, whoever wins at UFC 336, should get the call fast, because that fight might be the one his mother decides is the last.
