Islam Makhachev’s 14-fight winning streak is now the longest in the history of the UFC lightweight division.
Makhachev is achieving dominance like rarely seen before at 155lbs and it continued with his emphatic submission victory of Dustin Poirier at UFC 302.
Makhachev choked out Poirier to pick up a historic winCredit: Getty
His victory saw him extend his winning streak to 14 wins, which is now the longest active series on the UFC roster.
It has also seen him surpass mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov as holding the all-time record for longest win-streak at 155lbs, with ‘The Eagle’ having retired on a 13 victory rampage.
He will now chase the overall all-time record across all weight divisions, which is currently held by UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
‘Bones’ has 18 consecutive wins up until his last victory over Cyril Gane, and he is expected to return before retirement.
Middleweight legend Anderson Silva carried a 16-fight win streak from 2006-2012 and sits in second place.
Meanwhile, Kamaru Usman has one more win than Makhachev in third place, picking up 15 wins without defeat over six years from 2015 to 2021.
Despite losing this record, Nurmagomedov will be delighted with his protege, whom he cornered to his latest win over Poirier.
The future of Makhachev at the weight class is uncertain, given he harbours ambitions of moving up in weight.
Makhachev is in the process of replicating Nurmagomedov’s dominance in the UFCCredit: Getty
He is eyeing a shot at becoming the latest ‘double champion’ in the UFC, with 170lbs Leon Edwards potentially a target for the Dagestani native.
In doing so, the champion’s manager Ali Abdelaziz still believes a showdown with Conor McGregor could be on the cards at the new weight.
“Conor starts and goes on a rant, starting to create drama with Islam,” Mendez told Red Corner MMA.
“Which is kind of good because Conor’s the kind of guy you want to root against or root for.
“Regardless, everybody wants to see him. Me, I want to see him get beat by Islam.
“So, for me, him doing what he’s doing is causing a lot of attention so there wouldn’t be nothing better for me and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] than to have Islam have a fight with him somewhere down the line.”
Belal Muhammad has surprisingly urged the pound-for-pound superstar to skip 170lbs and move up to middleweight.
He said: “Yeah, I would never fight him [Islam Makhachev], 100%. But honestly, he could go up to 185 and beat [Dricus] du Plessis right now.
“I think he’s that good, really. I think he could go up there and be that two-division champ, skip over 170 for a little bit.
“He has plenty of time, man. He’s dominating his fights, he’s winning easily, I think he’s gonna continue on that path of being a dominant champion.
“He’s got plenty of years left. He tweeted out, or said something about it recently in an interview saying, yeah, I’m still hungry, I’m still here. I think he’s got a long time to go.”