Islam Makhachev, Khabib’s protege and pound-for-pound king | UFC 302

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight kingpin, Islam Makhachev, looks to defend his title for the third time opposite veteran knockout artist, Dustin Poirier, this Saturday (June 1, 2024) at UFC 302 inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Makhachev needed a 10-fight win streak to score his first UFC title shot, but he’s making up for lost time. The Russian wrestler defended his title twice last year, beginning and definitively ending a trilogy with Alexander Volkanovski to announce himself as the current pound-for-pound king. He’s massively favored to dispatch Poirier here, a win that would seemingly clear off the remaining old guard of the Lightweight elite.

It would be foolish to fully look past “The Diamond,” but the odds are on Makhachev’s side for a reason. He’s been tremendous, living up to every expectation, and now he can tie his coach Khabib Nurmagomedov’s title defense record with one more victory.

Let’s take a closer look at his skill set:

Striking

Makhachev’s pair of bouts opposite Volkanovski have dramatically changed the perception of his kickboxing ability.

Makhachev’s best weapon has long been his left leg (GIF). Despite being a lifelong wrestler more than anything else, he’s able to throw strong left kicks while relaxed, which tends to mean his kicks come quickly. He’s often taking advantage of facing Orthodox opponents, so his round kick requires little setup to be a major threat to the liver or head. In addition to mixing up his targets, Makhachev will stab up the middle with a left front kick. It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that Makhachev managed to clip an ill-prepared Volkanovski with his best stand up weapon.

Makhachev’s boxing has seen good development. Though he still prefers short exchanges, Makhachev is more loose and accurate. For a Southpaw, he actually has a decent jab too, one that he feints often then surprises foe with occasionally.

Unsurprisingly, Makhachev does more of his work with his left hand (GIF). He mostly throws it straight to the chin or body, often following a jab feint. However, he gave Volkanovski some interesting looks by feinting the uppercut then firing the straight, or showing the straight and instead firing more of a left hook. His ability to switch up the the angle on his rear hand certainly helps it sneak through the guard. One of Makhachev’s best setups is his feint towards the lead leg with his right hand or even his head. As his opponent attempts to pull the leg away from a potential shot, their head comes forward, directly into his overhand.

Against Davi Ramos, a left hand/takedown feint combination saw Ramos try to fire back, only to get wrapped up in the double-collar tie and dropped with a knee. Tying punches into clinches worked well against another shorter opponent in Volkanovski, and he used the double-collar defensively as well to prevent Volkanovski from building combinations. The Australian was forced to address the clinch immediately, because Makhachev’s knees were dangerously close to his chin right away.

What’s really interesting about Makhachev’s success on the feet against Charles Oliveira is that he really did not do anything complicated. Instead, Makhachev relied on his fundamentals, patience and excellent training.

From the first bell, Makhachev seemed very prepared for the various standup tools in Oliveira’s arsenal. He consistently circled off, refusing Oliveira easy access to the type of ferocious pace he typically enjoys. Oliveira is not the type to work his way forward behind a double jab and feints — he was just attacking. Conversely, Makhachev was happy to ding him with a left hand or check hook then wrestle or simply return to his movement. Oliveira tried to grit his way through the counters, but a Makhachev right hook sent him to the canvas instead.

Makhachev continued to find counter fighting success against Volkanovski. In addition to using the clinch to deter his bursts, Makhachev sat down on his counter punches, wobbling Volkanovski’s knees on several occasions with his counter left hand. Of course, it helped Makhachev’s cause that Volkanovski was forced to charge at him to cover distance, but he did good work in making the Australian pay for his height and reach disadvantages.

Wrestling

A Russian and world champion in Combat Sambo, a tremendous portion of Makhachev’s fights are spent in top control. This is where the Khabib comparisons come from, as the two share several of the same strategies even if there are important differences as well.

Before we get into any technique, if you have yet to see Makhachev’s fight with Arman Tsarukyan, it’s a fantastic display of mixed martial arts (MMA) wrestling from both men.

In regard to the comparisons to Khabib’s wrestling, their approaches to taking down opponents are quite different. Nurmagomedov was all about suddenly closing the gap with athletic shots before finishing along the fence, whereas Makhachev is all about tricks and craft.

He’s also simply tremendous from the upper body clinch.

Makhachev’s clinic against Nik Lentz remains one of the best examples. In the first real wrestling exchange of the fight, Makhachev controlled an underhook along the fence and threatened an outside throw on the far leg. When Lentz widened his base to avoid getting tossed, Makhachev scored an easy inside trip on the near leg.

That inside trip is a common weapon of Makhachev, who will spin his opponent to the mat whenever he spreads his legs. Another common trick of Makhachev is to execute a foot sweep while his opponent attempts to land a knee, turning a corner and deftly knocking the base foot out of position to land on top.

Back to Lentz — at one point, Lentz attempted his own outside trip. Almost effortlessly, Makhachev applied pressure with his overhook and hopped, betting on his own balance and pressure against the American’s. He won, flipping Lentz to his back with a technique “The Carny” uses pretty often.

Against Tsarukyan, Makhachev twice pulled off an awesome foot sweep from the over-under in the center of the Octagon, a position that really only occurs when two aggressive wrestlers meet. With his overhook arm, Makhachev would reach across the middle ground and catch Tsarukyan’s overhook wrist. This hand position allowed Makhachev to twist Tsarukyan a bit, and when the talented Armenian resisted, he moved directly into the foot sweep.

When Makhachev does level change into shots, he likes to do so when his opponent is backed into the fence, where overpowering his opponent with a double leg is a matter of posture and strength. Against Dan Hooker, he converted a caught kick into an effortless double leg while pressing the Kiwi. When Bobby Green did a nice job of hand-fighting and trying to circle off in the clinch, Makhachev dropped down quickly and bowled him over, shocking the veteran.

Volkanovski kept up with Makhachev’s wrestling far better than most, but he still wound up beneath the Russian wrestler on several occasions. Most often, Makhachev finished his shots along the fence, making use of his strength advantage to force Volkanovski to the floor in classic fashion. When Volkanovski turned away, Makhachev’s ability to take the back before Volkanovski broke his grip was tested.

Defensively, Makhachev has proven incredibly difficult to take down. Lentz managed to gain good position on the double leg along the fence a couple times, but he was quickly pulled up to the waist and tripped up for his efforts.

The bout with Tsarukyan revealed even more about Makhachev’s excellent defense. Tsarukyan repeatedly committed fully to his shots, even hitting his knee along the canvas, Yet a vast majority of the time, Makhachev was still able to meet the shot with a hip bump and sprawl, dropping his weight heavy on an overhook to angle away from Tsarukyan’s head.

More than just stopping the shot, Makhachev made his opponent pay. He hung on the front head lock repeatedly, which is very wearing. In other exchanges, Makhachev drove into his own shot as Tsarukyan recovered his foot position — the classic re-shot more common to scholastic wrestling than cage-fighting.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

We have to credit Makhachev’s incredible top control to his Sambo background and Russian fight team. In this realm, Makhachev is far more similar to Nurmagomedov. The man is heavy from top position, keeping his head high and stacking his opponent’s hips as he stands over them. He may not be a mauler on the level of Khabib, but getting stuck underneath Makhachev seems to suck pretty bad.

On the mat, Makhachev very often presents his foes with the same paradox as “The Eagle.” He’s constantly looking to lock the legs down. He’ll do so with the leg triangle after a successful takedown, collecting both legs then locking his own over top, effectively pinning his foe’s butt to the canvas. However, Makhachev also applies the same concept from half guard, locking his own legs to trap himself — and his opponent — in half guard.

His opponent has the option to simple stay there, but then he’ll just be eating elbows and losing the fight. More likely, his foe looks to push off the mat and build up to resist. This is precisely how Makhachev (and Khabib) finds his way to the two-on-one control, tying up the wrist behind the back.

It’s simple miserable, and there’s no easy escape. Not only does Makhachev likely score some free shots, but his foe often has to give up the back or mount to escape the two-on-one wrist ride — thus the trio of rear naked choke wins on his record.

In his victory over Hooker, Makhachev was pretty quickly able to latch onto a kimura. He caught Hooker being a bit lazy in half guard — which admittedly is not the easiest position to finish the shoulder look — and secured the figure-four grip. Then, he quickly moved into side control, a much better finishing position. The crank was tight, but it wasn’t until he was able to step over Hooker’s head and fully torque the should that he forced a fight-ending scream from “The Hangman.”

Against Kajan Johnson, Makhachev pulled off a pretty neat armbar. After climbing high into the mount, Makhachev reached around his opponent’s head to catch a wrist in kind of an inverse gift wrap position. After a few punches, Makhachev drove forward even higher into the arm pit, using his other hand to help latch on rather than strike.

Makhachev sat back on the arm, controlled a leg to prevent his foe from sitting up, then yanked properly at the wrist to hyperextend the arm and force the tap.

Twice now, Makhachev has finished the arm triangle choke from half guard. This is not at all common, as it’s a worse position to drive into the strangle since the opponent’s legs are in play to resist. For most athletes, it’s just not very possible to generate enough forward force and shoulder pressure to fully cut off blood flow from that position.

Makhachev is not most athletes. He’s able to get up on his toes and really drive his weight forward despite the half guard, and — judging by his flaring back muscles — his clamp around the neck is obviously severe. He’s making experienced opposition tap quickly with this technique, and he’s able to wrap it up very quickly from what’s usually an innocuous position.

In short, that’s a real dangerous technique.

Conclusion

Makhachev is a standout talent, one of the absolute best in the game right now. He faces a dangerous contender in Poirier, but it doesn’t feel like a challenge the Russian champion cannot handle.

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Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.

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