It's been awhile since I've been back into the routine here, but I'm glad things are returning to normal. There's not better time either as we are coming off of a pretty huge event, even though a lot of MMA fans are complaining about it (to no surprise really). The main event was probably the most anticipated fight of the year from the MMA community as a whole. Islam Makhachev fulfilled what seemed like his destiny to become a champion and he did it in as impressive of a fashion as someone can. It was an absolutely incredible performance and he shut down Charles Oliveira from the jump. Islam looks like he is set to go on an all time title run, but I do recognize that this is a pretty common narrative every time we get a new champion. Maybe Islam isn't an all time champion, but if he fights the way he did this past weekend, it's hard to imagine him losing any time soon. There's a lot to talk about when it comes to this fight, so let's start.
In terms of performance, I don't know that there's really much that I can say about Islam Makhachev. He was in control of the fight for almost every single second of the run time. He was winning at range, in the clinch, and on the ground. There really wasn't a moment where Charles had him in a bad spot or even in any danger. Islam's striking doesn't always look pretty, but he uses it exactly how he needs to. He uses his length to keep the fight on the outside until he can dictate when to close the distance. He was landing solid punches right from the jump. He stung Charles early to the point where Oliveira decided to pull guard and just try to fight off of his back. Charles finally decided he needed to get up and Islam almost immediately returned him to his back. The second round saw Islam consistently winning striking exchanges and landing almost all of the impactful strikes. He clipped Charles with a right hook as he entered the pocket and Charles sort of got stood up and then went to his back, as he has done many times during his long winning streak. Islam had no fear of Charles on his back, so he went right down on top of him and was able to lock in the arm triangle grip. He was in top half and Charles seemed hurt, but that he was relatively ok, but the second that Islam even began to slide his leg out to go to mount (and eventually he would've angle off to the side) Charles tapped and that was that. It was about as flawless of a performance during a title fight as I can remember. The other most recent example that I can think of was Volkanovski vs The Korean Zombie, but I'm not looking at a list or anything so I could be missing something. I really don't know that there's anything Islam could or should have done differently. He shut down Oliveira's offense completely and was able to get to whatever position he wanted to with ease. He was absolutely incredible and it is going to be interesting to see who can take the belt off of him.
As of right now, it seems almost set in stone that Islam is going to be taking on Alexander Volkanovski in February as his first defense. Volk will be taking his shot at becoming double champ and that is going to be a tall task, but I think this is a fight that people will get up for. I've seen some people be very critical of Islam for calling out Volk after and I think that's a bit much. I get that some people didn't want another grappling based champion at lightweight after Khabib controlled the division for a long time because they think it's boring, but to call this a weak move by Islam is over the top. First of all, it really seemed like this fight was already set up by everyone involved. Volk weighed in as the backup and Dana had already said he was getting the next shot, so Islam calling out someone else would have just made him seem like he was running from what everyone already knew was coming. There's also a respect thing that I think is at play. Islam struggled to get a fight against anyone at the top of the division for awhile. He had the cursed fight with Rafael Dos Anjos that they had both pulled out of (once when Paul Felder stepped in to fight RDA, another when Dan Hooker stepped in to fight Islam, and there was the weird situation when RDA called Islam's bluff after Rafael Fiziev pulled out with a visa issue (I think) and he ended up fighting Renato Moicano) and he also had the Beneil Dariush fight when Benny pulled out with an injury. I don't think Islam is in a hurry to give title shots to all of those fighters who wouldn't fight him without the belt (Poirier, Gaethje, Chandler, etc) and Volk has been pretty respectful throughout the whole process. Maybe Islam isn't as petty as I am, but I know that would be something I would consider when deciding who to give a title shot to. Branching off of that is the fact that Volk in Australia is the biggest fight he can get right now. Islam has never really had the chance to earn a huge paycheck in a big fight and this is the best way for him to cash in with his first defense. You don't have to like it or maybe you just want to criticize him in any way you can, but I think this makes quite a bit of sense. If for some reason this fight doesn't get made, it has to be Beneil Dariush getting the shot. Anything else would just feel disingenuous. If we got another Poirier, Chandler, or Gaethje title shot before him, it just wouldn't feel right. It is going to be Volk though and I'm excited for it.
I've been a fan of Charles Oliveira over the last couple of years, but this was just not his night at all. For as good as Islam was, Oliveira was equally not himself. He seemed a bit out of sorts as well. He was talking about how he was going to kill Islam and that really isn't Charles. The version of him that showed up to fight just wasn't him at his best and that is what it would've taken to come out of that fight with the belt. He got hurt early and the pulled guard and hoped to fish for a submission off of his back. That obviously didn't work as most people assumed it wouldn't, but even when the fight was standing, he didn't feel all that dangerous. Islam was landing and not getting hit hardly at all. Islam dropped him with a right hook that didn't even seem like it was all that powerful or flush, but Charles went down and once Islam got the grip locked in, Charles tapped pretty quickly. I've never fought or grappled a day in my life, so I have no idea how compromised Charles was and I can only imagine the kind of squeeze that Islam has, but it felt like Charles kind of knew that it wasn't his day. It was a bit unfortunate that we didn't get to see Charles at his best as the fight would've been a lot more fun, but I'm not really sure that there's any version of Charles that would have had the answers for that version of Islam. It was a tough matchup for him from the beginning, but to not get the best version of Charles was disappointing for everyone involved. I don't think he's done though by any means and I wouldn't be surprised to see him fight for a title again sometime in the not so distant future.
I think the biggest obstacle in determining what is next for Charles is just finding him a fresh matchup. He's already fought Islam, Poirier, Chandler, and Gaethje. That takes away the champion and three of the top five (and of the remaining two is himself). That really leaves Beneil Dariush as the fight to make. Dariush deserves the opportunity and this would be Oliveira's best way to insert his name right back into the title conversation as well. A win over Beneil would carry legitimate weight. I know Charles wanted the McGregor fight, but I think that seems like it is just a pipe dream at the moment. Apparently, McGregor isn't even in the USADA pool right now so, I'm not sure what a timeline for his return even looks like right now. I guess Charles could get that fight eventually, but he could probably fight once before Conor is even looking to get back on the schedule. If Dariush isn't the guy, I suppose Rafael Fiziev is a perfectly fine route to go. Fiziev's situation isn't all that dissimilar from Dariush's in that he's gone basically as far as he can without fighting one of the top guys. Both Dariush and Fiziev just need an opportunity. One of them should get Charles and I think Dariush is that guy. Fiziev should be fighting Justin Gaethje next if Gaethje actually plans on continuing to compete. The law firm of Gaethje, Chandler, and Poirier is going to have to start fighting someone other than each other if this division is going to progress in a logical way though and we should start to see that next year. With so much talk about holding up divisions in the news cycle this week, I think we need to mention those guys as well. Dariush, Gamrot, Fiziev, Tsarukyan, Ismagulov, and Jalin Turner are all poised to enter the title picture now, but they're going to have to get an opportunity from someone. Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier, and Justin Gaethje are going to have to step up and allow those guys a chance. Dan Hooker and Tony Ferguson did it for Chandler and Oliveira, so now they have to allow for that as well. They're going to want to sit out and wait for Conor to return, but the UFC can't allow that to happen and just let the top 5 stay basically the same for another year. The first step is Oliveira vs Dariush though and I feel like that fight can and will be made without too much of an issue.
What did you guys think of the fight? How do you grade each fighter's performance? What do you want to see them do next? Leave any and all thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
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