Khabib Nurmagomedov insists Islam Makhachev is simply the best after watching his protg be
Khabib Nurmagomedov believes his friend and training partner, Islam Makhachev, proved he is the best MMA fighter on the planet at UFC 284.
On Sunday in Perth, the UFC lightweight champion successfully defended his title for the first time since picking it up by beating Charles Oliveira inside two rounds last October.
However, he did not have things all his own way against UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkonaovski who was hoping to add a second belt to his collection.
‘The Great’ scored several knockdowns in the fight, defending Makhachev’s wrestling well – for the most part - and finished the fight on top, but it wasn’t enough to get a historic victory.
Nurmagomedov’s protégé walked away with a unanimous decision win after impressing the judges by scoring a couple of knockdowns of his own while having sporadic success in the wrestling exchanges.
The decision was somewhat controversial, with fans in the arena booing at the result and Nate Diaz questioning it on social media before the word ‘robbery’ began to trend on Twitter.
Obviously, Nurmagomedov didn’t agree with that narrative and made that much clear while congratulating the new pound-for-pound number-one post-fight.
“Simply the best,” Khabib wrote on Instagram alongside several pictures of him and his long-time training partner.
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“Proved it in a hard, competitive fight against the best active fighter on the planet. There is always something to work on. But this story will remain for a long time in this sport.
“Just have a flashback on your memory of who topped the best regardless of weight category from Eurasia in the history of MMA, there were only a couple of fighters and Islam was already on that list.
“You are already history Brother Islam Makhachev.”
Nurmagomedov retired from fighting in 2020 after beating Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 and quickly became one of the most revered coaches in the sport.
After guiding Makhachev to his old title, the 34-year-old decided to step away from MMA altogether in order to spend more time with his family and less time travelling for fights.
He was not in Makhachev’s corner at UFC 284 but that didn’t seem to impact his fighter who put on a great performance against Volkanovski.
It’s currently unclear who he will fight next as there’s no obvious number-one contender at lightweight and he refused to make a specific call out during his post-fight interview.
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