Drew Dober knows he’ll get taken down against Islam Makhachev — but doesn’t seem to mind too much.
Dober takes on Makhachev in an intriguing lightweight encounter on the main card of the UFC 259 pay-per-view event on Saturday night.
Makhachev had been struggling to land opponents as he has long complained of being ducked by just about every fighter matched up with him while the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help either. He will now be competing for the first time since September 2019.
But as far as Dober is concerned, the Dagestan native was on his radar since 2017 and was a fight he voluntarily asked for.
“In all honesty, I think he is a hard person to find a fight for,” Dober told BJ Penn.com. “Not a lot of people want to fight Islam. He has all that hype around him. He has been on my radar since 2017. I’ve been eager to compete with him. They were looking for a fight for Islam and I raised my hand, that I would definitely fight him. It is a great matchup.”
Makhachev is undefeated in his last six outings as he has dominated his opponents throughout with his wrestling. Dober, meanwhile, is on a three-fight winning streak with knockouts in all of those encounters.
It’s clearly a striker vs. grappler matchup, and Dober knows he’ll eventually be on his back at some point. However, he will be prepared for that scenario.
“Absolutely. You can’t completely avoid a takedown,” Dober explained. “It will be a wrestling match with punches, I know I will be on my back at some point. I’m fully prepared for this fight to be a grappling match and I can’t avoid that.
“I’m just trying to make his life uncomfortable for the 15 minutes we are in there. Whether it is with my hands or feet, or my wrestling or my jiu-jitsu, my goal is to make him comfortable and make him make a mistake.”
As for how the fight eventually plays out? Dober expects to get his fourth knockout win in a row.
“Honestly, I love getting the knockout wins for everyone so that is Plan A,” Dober added. “I see myself finding his chin.”
Who do you think wins?