At UFC 280, Islam Makhachev demonstrated to everyone how legitimate he is as a fighter.
The main event of this past weekend included one of the UFC championship bouts that were one of the most anticipated in recent history.
Makhachev And Oliveira Had the Best Lightweight Streaks
Makhachev and Charles Oliveira, who had the two most outstanding streaks at lightweight, eventually fought each other, however, Oliveira was disappointed that the fight wasn’t as competitive as he had hoped it would be. Makhachev won the fight by unanimous decision.
Daniel Cormier, a former colleague of Makhachev’s at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), was in charge of the commentary for that evening’s bouts.
Cormier was completely taken aback by Makhachev’s performance even though he has direct experience working with Makhachev in the training room. Even still, Cormier was stunned by the performance.
During an appearance on DC & RC, Daniel Cormier said that “He did it against a Charles ‘Do Bronx’ Oliveira who was in form, who was prepared, but he understood exactly what he needed to do, and I felt that was demonstrated pretty early in the fight.”
“I’ve been caught in the arm triangle formed by this youngster. It’s a very close fit. Charles Oliveira submitted as soon as he was able to clear his guard, and I’m telling you, it was one of the most dominating performances that we’ve ever seen from a challenger.
Oliveira had a few opportunities early on, and according to UFC Stats, he landed the most important blows of any Makhachev opponent, even though he was only his opponent 19 times.
Makhachev’s Wrestling Won the Contest
In the end, Makhachev’s exceptional wrestling pressure proved to be too much for his opponent to resist throughout the match.
Incredible submission attempts by “Do Bronx” were stopped with relative ease, but not before he was knocked down in the second round and ended with an arm triangle choke.
Makhachev accomplished precisely what he said he was going to do, and now the community as a whole is widely in agreement that a long new period at the top of the continuously loaded 155-pound weight class might soon be poised to unfurl.
Cormier said, “I’ll say this without a shred of doubt regarding Islam.” “He’s always been the most interesting conversationalist in the room.
Everyone agreed that he would be the greatest in the world if he could replicate the same level of talent and perform in the octagon as he does in the training room.
Now, I’m not saying that he’s better than Khabib [Nurmagomedov], but I am saying that he has always been such a tremendous fighter. However, he was never able to just take it and do it in the octagon as effectively as he did while he was doing it inside the gym.
The one thing that took me by surprise was that when I spoke to these people—and by these guys I mean Charles, Islam, Aljo, T.J. Dillashaw, Sean O’Malley, and Petr Yan—they were so certain that they were going to win.
Finishing Line
I had never seen six individuals so positive that they were going to win before. Charles Oliveira was certain that he would finish off his opponent in the first round of the fight. The very first thing that Islam Makhachev stated was, “I’m going to submit Charles Oliveira.”
Even as I was talking to him, I said to myself, “Islam, you can’t think you’re simply going to walk through this person.”
