{"id":2922,"date":"2024-02-20T21:24:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T20:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=2922"},"modified":"2024-02-21T21:47:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T20:47:29","slug":"islam-makhachev-his-coach-reveals-his-three-future-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/islam-makhachev-his-coach-reveals-his-three-future-fights\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev: his coach reveals his three future fights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Islam Makhachev&#8217;s trainer, Javier Mendez, presents the lightweight champion&#8217;s plan for 2024. The latter is very ambitious!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Islam Makhachev is ready to write his name in history! Since winning his belt by beating Charles Oliveira, he has emanated an aura of invincibility. He profiles as an elite fighter comparable to figures such as Kamaru Usman and Israel Adesanya in their prime. Indeed, Islam Makhachev currently occupies first place in the UFC pound-for-pound rankings. The hierarchy was controversial at the time.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cProbably June no up, I would think so. Hopefully, he can get two fights but let\u2019s see. Let\u2019s see what the UFC can plan for him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_38246\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FMH2n8t_3mA?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His two title defenses against the reckless Alexander Volkanovski, who fell this weekend against Ilia Topuria by KO, consolidated his status. Currently, the champion does not have any fights scheduled. The top four in his division already have fights scheduled so it&#8217;s unclear who he&#8217;ll face when he returns.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It won\u2019t be for a few more months until the 32-year-old can get something lined up for his third defense.\u00a0UFC 300\u00a0in April will feature all of the top options for Makhachev\u2019s opponent as BMF champion\u00a0Justin Gaethje\u00a0will face\u00a0Max Holloway\u00a0and\u00a0Charles Oliveira\u00a0has to overcome\u00a0Arman Tsarukyan.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Makhachev\u2019s coach\u00a0Javier Mendez\u00a0has a specific idea of how he hopes to see things play out, including fights with men from each of those bouts before moving on to welterweight.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What next for Islam Makhachev?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">During an interview with Casino Alpha, American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez explained his goals. He is notably aiming for a fight at Madison Square Garden and a new belt for Islam:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cJustin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, and then the welterweight title. These will be the next three fights for Islam. I would like to see Islam become welterweight world champion in 2025. I would love to see that and I know he is capable of it. If we get two fights this year, who knows, maybe you&#8217;ll see the UFC offer him a title fight sooner. \u00bb<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">For now, Charles Oliveira will have to face Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300. The Armenian could well foil all plans. Justin Gaethje, the BMF champion, will also be present on April 13 in a fight that already promises to be legendary against Max Holloway, the former featherweight world champion. Let&#8217;s also not forget Dustin Poirier, who will play big at UFC 299 against Beno\u00eet Saint Denis. If the Frenchman manages to finish decisively against the American, he could also claim a title shot, in any case the Frenchman plans to snatch the belt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islam Makhachev&#8217;s trainer, Javier Mendez, presents the lightweight champion&#8217;s plan for 2024. The latter is very ambitious! Islam Makhachev is ready to write his name in history! Since winning his belt by beating Charles Oliveira, he has emanated an aura of invincibility. He profiles as an elite fighter comparable to figures such as Kamaru Usman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,47],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ufc-news","8":"category-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2922\/revisions\/2924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}