Coach reveals UFC champ Islam Makhachev’s welterweight roadmap

The UFC’s habit of keeping the purse strings tight when it comes to fighter pay has had a couple of long term unintended consequences. First and foremost, over the past handful of years, fans have begun to see increasing stagnation among the title contenders all up and down the promotion’s 12 weight classes. Fighters know that if they’re going to get paid they need to fight for a belt, taking on lower-ranked rising prospects is an all risk, no reward scenario.

The other trend that’s emerged in recent years has been that of the ‘superfight’ and the double champ. Much like the contenders below them, champions are starting to realize that benefits to taking on new challengers are few and far between. If they’re going to make the most money they can by A) keeping their title and B) fighting on the biggest PPVs possible, then it’s not hard to see why a champion vs. champion matchmaking is has only become more popular.

UFC bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley campaigning for fight with Ilia Topuria

It was something of an interesting twist, then, when Sean O’Malley announced last year that he had no real interest in fighting Alexander Volkanovski, in part, it seems, because of Volk’s dominance over the division at 145 lbs.

“[Volkanovski] would be a very very difficult fight,” O’Malley explained at the time. “I mean, do I believe I could knock him out? 100%. I believe I could knock out anybody around 135-145. 55? That would be a little tougher, I’d need to put on some L-Bs. But Volk’s a very difficult fight. I’m not saying I’ll never fight him, that’s just not what I want now.”

That said, with a new champion now in place, it seems O’Malley’s reservations are a whole lot lower. Ilia Topuria took the crown this past weekend at UFC 298. While O’Malley recognizes he’s still got a couple challengers ahead of him, on a recent episode of the MMA Hour he made it sound like the Georgian is definitely on his radar for a future battle.

“I’m trying to call out a fight that I feel is exciting, that’s like holy s***,” O’Malley explained, defending his interest in fighting Topuria (transcript via MMA Fighting). “But I got a lot of pushback on it. I don’t know if people actually want me to fight Merab as much as they just hate the confidence that I have that I would go out there and knock out Ilia.

“But I decided, I’ve said what I needed to say, I’ve sent my message to Ilia. If Merab is next, Merab is next. I can get Ilia whenever, whenever the time comes. I haven’t talked to the UFC because obviously there’s nothing to talk about. I’ve got Chito Vera, March 9. That’s what’s next. That’s what I need to focus on.”

Islam Makhachev’s coach makes case for welterweight title fight

Sean O’Malley isn’t the only one setting his sights on a potential double-champ run. Heir to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s lightweight crown, Islam Makhachev has two title defenses under his belt now, after winning gold back in October of 2022. Both of those, as it happens, against then-featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski.

Among current lightweight contenders, Makhachev has a win over Charles Oliveira, whom he defeated to claim the belt back at UFC 280, and a narrow 2019 victory over Arman Tsarukyan. The path should be wide open for fighters like Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, or Michael Chandler to make a run, but that hasn’t stopped Makhachev’s coach, Javier Mendez, from positing a potential path to fighting for welterweight gold instead in a recent interview with Casino Alpha (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“After Ramadan, I’m hoping the UFC will fight Islam at Madison Square Garden—only because it’s good for his marketability to fight in the U.S.,” Mendez explained. “That’s what I’d like, but right now there’s no fight on the horizon for him just yet. I’m sure soon the UFC will announce a return for him, but just not yet.

“Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, and then the welterweight title. They would be my three next fights for Islam. I’d like to see Islam become the welterweight world champion in 2025. I’d love to see that, and I know he would too. If we get two fights this year, who knows, you might see the UFC offer him a title shot sooner.”

I guess for the moment we should all just be glad that Alexandre Pantoja… uhh… Dricus Du Plessis? No??? Leon Edwards!? … well I guess there’s nowhere else for Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall to go, so at least we’ve got that. In the meantime, it seems like every other champ in the UFC has their eyes set on an eventual run at an upper-division belt.

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Zane Simon

Zane Simon is a senior editor, writer, and podcaster for Bloody Elbow. He has worked with the website since 2013, taking on a wide variety of roles. A lifelong combat sports fan, Zane has trained off & on in both boxing and Muay Thai. He currently hosts the long-running MMA Vivisection podcast, which he took over from Nate Wilcox & Dallas Winston in 2015, as well as the 6th Round podcast, started in 2014. Zane is also responsible for developing and maintaining the ‘List of current UFC fighters’ on Bloody Elbow, a resource he originally developed for Wikipedia in 2010.

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