After the recent update of UFC 315 and Dana White, Islam Makhachev will have given his wish.
The lightweight champion has spoken about challenging itself at Welterweight for a while and that is now his next step.
Makhachev will be confronted with Jack della Maddalena in the future for the title of 170 pounds, although no date has been announced at the moment.
In the meantime, Ilia Topuria will be confronted with Charles Oliveira for the empty lightweight belt on UFC 317 after Makhachev had left its 155 pounds of gold to go up.
Some expect that the Russian will be even better in this new weight class with a man who knows a lot about competing in different divisions that go one step further than that.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Anatoly Malykhin says that Islam Makhachev can replicate his performance to become a threefold champion
Anatoly Malykhin believes that the lightweight dominance of Islam Makhacheve does not only switch to the Welterweight Division.
He believes that the pound-for-pound number one could also achieve the same success in the middleweight division of the UFC if it continued to go through weight classes.
Malykhin is a current title holder of two division in one championship that has previously written history by keeping three belts at the same time.
He dethroned Arjan Bhullar and Reinier de Ridder (twice) to win one middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight titles before he suffered his first defeat last November.
The Russian has had interactions with Makhachev in the past, where the UFC star declared him the “most dangerous man on the planet” after he had achieved his three-weight goals.
Malykhin told Bloody Elbow in a recent interview that he does not believe that someone could stop Makhachev to replicate this performance if he aimed for thoughts.
“When it comes to Islam Makhachev, I am just in love with his style. He has a great style and I think he can beat the current champion at 84 kilos (184 pounds) and he can become three-weight champions as I did in the past.
“I really think he can because he has a unique style, he trains with the best team in the world and he is trained by the best coach in the world. I have no advice for him. People like Islam should give me advice.”
Anatoly Malykhin wants to recover the favorite of his three belts in the near future
After gone 14-0 during his three-weight dominance, Anatoly Malykhin suffered a shock destruction in the main event of one 169 last November.
He lost his heavyweight title to Oumar 'Back Back back' Kane via a split decision, but 'Sladkiy' wants his belt back.
The 37-year-old is motivated to correct the mistakes he made in this fight, so that he can get revenge over Kane and go back to keeping three belts.
Malykhin told Bloody Elbow that the fight has already been booked, but one championship still has to announce the full details.
“The date has already been set. Unfortunately I cannot share the date with you. I think the promotion will do it, but slowly, steadily, I start to get ready.”