Islam Makhachev could have potentially made his return much sooner than people are expecting.
Several UFC champions who are some of the biggest stars on the roster are going to be out of action for the first few months of 2026.
While Ilia Topuria’s absence has led to the creation of an interim title, this wouldn’t have been the promotion’s first choice to kick off the Paramount+ era with a bang.
Khamzat Chimaev is also going through some delays before he defends his middleweight title for the first time.
We don’t know for sure when welterweight champion Islam Makhachev will be back, though seemingly the UFC had hoped that it would be sooner rather than later.
LATEST NEWS: UFC 324 gets even deeper as ex-title challenger joins the Paramount debut card Who’s the biggest threat to Islam Makhachev at welterweight?
UFC’s welterweight rankings:
#1 – Jack Della Maddalena#2 – Ian Machado Garry#3 – Shavkat Rakhmonov#4 – Michael Morales#5 – Belal Muhammad#6 – Carlos Prates#7 – Sean Brady#8 – Kamaru Usman#9 – Leon Edwards#10 – Joaquin Buckley
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Kamaru Usman and Ian Machado Garry were in the discussion to face Islam Makhachev in JanuaryThere has been a lot of talk about who Islam Makhachev will face in the first defense of his welterweight title.
Makhachev dominated Jack Della Maddalena in the main event of UFC 322 to win the 170-pound title, which suddenly opened up multiple fresh matchups that can happen at the top of the division.
It appears that we could have seen the first of these take place just next month if the Russian’s team had agreed with the UFC’s pitch.
Is Islam Makhachev still the pound-for-pound number one fighter in the UFC?
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In an interview with MMA Junkie during UFC 323 fight week, Makhachev’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, revealed that the UFC had called to ask about whether he’d be open to fighting in January.
The date mentioned by the manager, January 28, doesn’t align with an event the promotion is putting on, with UFC 324 on January 24 being the card he was seemingly alluding to.
After Makhachev had already ruled one name out of the mix, Abdelaziz added that both Kamaru Usman and Ian Machado Garry were two of the names that were in the conversation.
The champion’s manager said that the idea was thought about but Khabib Nurmagomedov shut it down, telling them to “shut up”, in the words of Abdelaziz.
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Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty ImagesAli Abdelaziz calls Ian Machado Garry the least deserving contenderAli Abdelaziz is still confident that Kamaru Usman will be Islam Makhachev’s next opponent despite the criticism that this has received from fans.
He believes that the body of work that ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ has put together in the welterweight division outweighs the current momentum of other contenders, including Ian Machado Garry.
“The least deserving one is Ian [Machado] Garry,” Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie. “I’m telling you this today because he doesn’t have the signature performance to be like, ‘Wow, I really want to see this fight.’ But at the end of the day, all these guys have dreams. They want to fight for the title. I can’t knock him.”
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLCAbdelaziz went on to add that he believes Usman would defeat Machado Garry over five rounds and that the Irishman wouldn’t last two rounds against Makhachev.
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