Off the back of his thrilling title fight win against common-foe, Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 over the weekend, Islam Makhachev has been urged to chase a fight with ex-champion, Conor McGregor next by his head coach, Javier Mendez.
Makhachev, the incumbent lightweight titleholder, headlined UFC 302 over the weekend in New Jersey, turning in the third successful defense of his crown with an impressive win against former interim champion, Poirier.
Latching onto a fifth round finish, Makhachev landed a D’Arce choke win over Poirier – with the bout between the duo viewed as even on one judge’s scorecard ahead of the fifth frame, much to the dismay of Islam Makhachev’s coach, former champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Islam Makhachev backed to fight Conor McGregor soon
And staking his claim for a welterweight title siege off the back of his lightweight title defense at UFC 302, Makhachev should consider a fight with the polarizing former two-weight champion, McGregor – according to his coach, Mendez.
“Conor (McGregor) starts and goes on a rank, starting to create drama with Islam (Makhachev),” Javier Mendez told Red Corner MMA. “Which is kind of good because Conor’s the kind of guy you want to root against or root for. Regardless, everybody wants to see him, Me, I want to see him get beat by Islam.”
So, for me, him doing what he’s doing is causing a lot of attention so there wouldn’t be nothing better for me and Khabib (Nurmagomedov) than to have Islam have a fight with him somewhere down the line,” Mendez explained. “He brought that staph [infection] up, which is very observant on his part, to be honest with you. The only thing is that he observed it way too late. At the time he mentioned it, it was already three weeks past.”
As for McGregor, speculation has been rife overnight regarding the Dubliner’s return later this month at UFC 303, with the organization confirming a press conference between himself and opponent, Michael Chandler – set to take place this evening, had been postponed at the 3Arena.
Furthermore, subsequent reports detailed how McGregor himself had cancelled multipl media obligations set to be carried out with broadcast partners prior to the event’s scrapping from the UFC.
Would you like to see Islam Makhachev fight Conor McGregor in the future?