Islam Makhachev has no plans to retire following his UFC 330 fight against Ian Machado Garry. Instead, he’s going to stick around until he’s created a legacy that’s unbeatable.
Makhachev’s friend and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov quit the sport after defending his lightweight title just three times, which may be why so many people assume Islam will do something similar. Makhachev defended the 155 pound belt four times (which is an all-time record for the UFC lightweight championship) and then moved to welterweight.
Retiring after defending the 170 pound strap would be a perfectly logical retirement point.
That’s not happening, according to Makhachev.
“It’s like somebody put the fake news I’m going to retire after this fight,” Makhachev said in a new interview with MMA Junkie. “No, it’s not true, man. I want to keep going. You know the feeling when you stay in shape, stay becoming best fighter? It’s amazing. You’re never going to find something like this outside this sport. I want to keep fighting and beat all the records and we stay here more years.”
Makhachev has a chance to beat Anderson Silva’s record for most wins in a row at 16. The Dagestani fighter is currently tied for that record, and a win over Garry at UFC 330 would put him above the legendary middleweight champion. He’s not stopping there, though.
“Is 20 enough? We have to be sure nobody is gonna break the 20.”
There’s plenty more records that will be difficult to break. Jon Jones and Demetrious Johnson have 11 title defenses, while Jon Jones has 16 title wins (a stat that comes from holding the record for most titles stripped or vacated).
“You guys know better than me, all these records, all these numbers,” Makhachev said. “I just have to be focused [on] training and defending my belt.”
Makhachev has been doing just that, but there are always distractions. During the interview he admitted that Saudi boxing power broker Turki Alalshikh had talked about having him compete in the ring.
“We spoke with Turki and I don’t know if it’s secret or not but he said, ‘When you will be ready for boxing, just let me know and we will do something.'”
“Why not box with some other fighters? Why not?” Islam asked. “Yeah, Turkey asked me a couple of times, ‘You ready to box?’ I just tell him, ‘Hey, you sit with Dana, just ask him. I’m ready like anytime.'”
