Alright guys, I'm back and the posts are back. Honestly, I was tired, I used the week off of school to sort of chill out and reset. I think we all needed it. I didn't watch the Triller Triad thing this weekend or the boxing, so I have nothing to say because I didn't see any of it. I did read that Mike Perry won his fight, so good for him. I could have continued the MMA Thanksgiving series, but I felt like I was going to end up repeating myself a lot, so I just opted to relax and let everyone enjoy their Thanksgiving week without my nonsense. Now that we're back and this article will being going out late, let's jump right into things.
I don't remember what day it was, but within the last few days, we got an announcement that I first saw come from Brett Okamoto that Islam Makhachev will return to the octagon in a main event on February 26 against fellow top 5 lightweight contender Beneil Dariush. Obviously, this sort of clears the path for Justin Gaethje to get the next title shot. While it seems as if this is a number one contenders fight for the title shot after, the timing of this just seems a little off to me. We saw Islam defeat Dan Hooker in late October and the talk coming out of that win was that Islam could potentially get the title shot against the winner of Poirier vs Oliveira on December 11. The following week saw Justin Gaethje defeat Michael Chandler in an instant classic that one upped Islam's performance and put him in the lead for the title shot. The next title shot overall is going to Dustin Poirier in a little over 2 weeks, so I'm not sure why the Islam vs Dariush fight was booked for late February. Whoever walks away with the title on the 11th, assuming they come out relatively healthy, will be looking to defend the title in March at the earliest, but realistically in April or May. That would give Justin Gaethje a 5 or 6 month layoff, which is pretty unfortunate from a fan perspective because we want to see as many Justin Gaethje fights as possible. However, to have Islam and Dariush fight in late February sets that winner up for another 6-ish month layoff of their own, assuming the belt holder at the time is healthy enough for a normal turnaround. I ultimately think I agree with the decision to go with Gaethje first over Islam just because of their last performances. Gaethje had a great win over Michael Chandler, while Islam had an equally impressive win over a short notice replacement Dan Hooker. I think for Islam, another high level fight before a title shot would serve him well. A short notice Dan Hooker is Islam's toughest test by a wide margin. I think Drew Dober may have been ranked 15th at the time of their fight and Thiago Moises may have been 13th or something, but I don't think one single fight inside the top 10 jumps you right into the title fight, especially given the current state of that division. This will be Islam's first fight against a top 5 opponent and I think it will be a tough test for him.
I do want to at least mention Beneil Dariush because I'm a fan of his. He reminds me of a professor I had a couple of years ago and I love his every man sort of attitude. He's been on a great run of late and is coming off the biggest win of his career against Tony Ferguson at UFC 252 last May. Dariush has the solid grappling base to deal with Islam to some extent I believe and we've seen Dariush be dangerous on the feet in his recent wins over Scott Holtzman and Drakkar Klose. I'll probably do a detailed breakdown for it since it's a main event when the time comes, but at least right now, my feeling is that Islam will and probably should be the favorite. I think Dariush needs to make it a fight and by that I mean a dog fight. If he can make it dirty and keep Islam guessing between the grappling and striking, while getting in his face, I think that's his best route to a victory. The cleaner it looks, the more I think it favors Islam as he is probably the more technically skilled fighter. All the talk surrounding this has been about Islam's path to the title, which he's completely earned, but let's not act like this isn't the same opportunity for Dariush. With a win over Islam, that would clearly become the best win of his career (even though Feguson's name is more recognizable) and would put him in that same driver's seat for a title shot. Dariush took some time off after the Ferguson fight to spend some time with his family and new child, so he should be fresh and injury free, assuming a healthy training camp. Dariush randomly missed weight for the first time in his career against Holtzman, but he's never had that problem before so as long as that's in control, he should have no issue getting the next title shot with a win over Makhachev.
I'm going to have another post tomorrow that branches off of this slightly, so I'm not going to get into too much more here. What do you guys think? Are you satisfied with Gaethje seemingly getting the next title shot? Who do you think gets the win is Makhachev vs Dariush? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading.
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