{"id":581,"date":"2023-02-12T09:35:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-12T10:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/?p=581"},"modified":"2024-04-26T14:38:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T14:38:26","slug":"russian-star-dethrones-ufc-pound-for-pound-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/12\/russian-star-dethrones-ufc-pound-for-pound-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian star dethrones UFC pound-for-pound king"},"content":{"rendered":"

Islam Makhachev retained his world title in a hard-fought battle in Australia<\/strong><\/p>\n

Russian champion Islam Makhachev defended his UFC lightweight title early on Sunday in an intense, five-round battle against hometown favorite Alex Volkanovski in Perth, Australia in the UFC 284 headliner.<\/p>\n

Makhachev, the fearsome Dagestani grappler, entered the cage as the reigning 155lb champion, but faced a stern challenge from the Australian, who was moving up from the featherweight (145lb) division he has dominated in a bid to become the UFC’s latest two-division titleholder.<\/p>\n

But after a back-and-forth contest which saw both men tested on their feet and on the ground, it was Makhachev’s persistent aggression and suffocating grappling which proved enough to earn a unanimous decision victory on the judges’ scorecards.<\/p>\n

\n

The full #UFC284<\/a> main event scorecards \ud83d\udcdd pic.twitter.com\/zCx1YmqcFb<\/a><\/p>\n

— UFC (@ufc) February 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Thank you Alex. It was a very good fight<\/em>,” said Makhachev after what will likely be considered by far the toughest bout of his recent career. “I need some tough fights. I have to improve. I [thought] he’s going to be easy on the ground but this guy improved a lot.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

The victory will almost certainly see Makhachev succeed Volkanovski at the summit of the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings to determine the world’s best fighter across all weight classes when the latest list is issued on Monday. It was the first time in the UFC’s 30-year history that the fight league’s top two ranked pound-for-pound fighters fought in the Octagon.<\/p>\n

“I show why I’m number one<\/em>,” Makhchev added in his post-fight interview. “They have to improve more. You like or you don’t like but I am the best fighter in the world right now<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

\n

Opponents for 25 minutes<\/p>\n

Partners in history forever \ud83d\udc4f #UFC284<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/4wICW3XpTO<\/a><\/p>\n

— UFC (@ufc) February 12, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Volkanovski, who was fighting in front of a fiercely partisan crowd Down Under, added his congratulations to Makhachev afterwards.<\/p>\n

“Obviously a lot of people are going to be happy with that because they never gave me a chance<\/em>,” said the Aussie, who had Makhachev in trouble on several occasions in the five-round fight. “I knew I prepared properly, it was a fun fight. Congrats to Islam<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Makhachev, who has now won 12 straight fights, stands alone at the top of the UFC lightweight division. His victory ensures continued Dagestani dominance in the organization’s lightweight fold – just like the man he succeeded at the top of the division, his close friend and training partner Khabib Nurmagomedov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islam Makhachev retained his world title in a hard-fought battle in Australia Russian champion Islam Makhachev defended his UFC lightweight title early on Sunday in an intense, five-round battle against hometown favorite Alex Volkanovski in Perth, Australia in the UFC 284 headliner. Makhachev, the fearsome Dagestani grappler, entered the cage as the reigning 155lb champion,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582,"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blueskykentucky.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}