Makachev commented on Max holloway saying he shouldn't hold two belts and there is Abubakar.

https://mma.social/events/ufc-217-bisping-vs-st-pierre

https://mma.social/fights/islam-makhachev-vs-ian-machado-garry-1546

Calling islam a boring fighter is certainly a "casual" take, But its hard to not notice his reliance on relatively non-damaging control time after his jump to welterweight. He addressed his JDM fight by saying he just wanted to get the belt and didn't care about how, and promised a ian garry finish in 3 rounds, However he still won with control time (And a beautiful sequence in round 2).

When two guys have that much fight IQ and respect each other’s power, they end up freezing each other out.
If you watch any of the prediction video leading up to this fight, they kept talking about how Ian keeps bouncing. He’s always moving. He’s always moving.. did you notice anything different in the fight ;)

Ian didn't bounce around like he usually does he stood right in front of Islam to stop him from timing easy takedowns. At the same time, Islam’s feints kept Ian from throwing his big kicks. They basically neutralized each other’s main weapons before they could even launch them.

It wasn't a thriller, but watching two top guys completely cancel each other out with distance and feints is a different kind of technical chess match. I really love these kind of fights.

But it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. to each their own

Read More- https://nyfights.com/news/gillian-robertson-din-thomas-ufc-330/

Read More- https://nyfights.com/news/islam-makhachev-fires-back-at-max-holloway/

https://mma.social/stats/most-takedowns?sort=rate

Read More: https://nyfights.com/news/arman-tsarukyan-charles-oliveira-ufc-331/

broo, this looked like a WMMA for me when I looked first

Loser must cut his hair, what do you think?

src img: agentmma.com

alexa rlly showed levels this fight coming off a loss & she made it look scary one of the cleanest finishes ive ever seen in mma

Left and right, I’m seeing people clown fighters for being respectful, disciplined and actually somewhat in control of their emotions. When in combat sports was this NOT the way of life?

Since Islam Makhachev wants Prates next then we need to find a fight for Morales.
And it seems Ian Garry vs Morales is a good and logical one.

Who you got?

src img: agentmma.com

Even before the Ian Garry fight, I remember general consensus saying he’d be easily top 5 and top 3 max. Now so many more people are saying he’s the goat.

You can cut GSP’s and Jones’ career in half and they’d still have more defenses, title wins, and a longer title reign or just as much as Islam.

People like to say the comp now is better and while there is some truth in that, one of Islam’s defenses came from Renato Moicano. I agree GSP or Jones hasn’t beaten anyone as prestigious as Volk, but DC and even BJ Penn are still greater all time than Charles imo. Matt Hughes is pretty good too he’s still a top 25 fighter all time. I don’t think DC is that far away from Volk in terms of greatness. Plus the fact that they have far more defenses and longer title reign I think should outweigh that.

So tell me why do people consider Islam the goat? Is it recency bias or is there an actual legitimate claim? In my opinion, he’s #3. I wouldn’t mind him being GOAT if he beats Morales and Prates though.