Islam Makhachev now in UFC record books thanks to hallmark consistency
Two numbers in UFC lore don’t get talked about enough: 11 and 16.The first, in this case, points to the 11 straight successful defenses of the UFC flyweight title by the one they call “Mighty Mouse,” Demetrious Johnson.And 16, that’s the number of fights in a row Anderson Silva won from 2006-12, the high-water mark for sustained success from fight to fight, both on the way up and while perched atop the heap.Whelp, so much for 16.Islam Makhachev erased it Saturday night in Philadelphia.The Dagestani dynamo tallied consecutive victory No.
17 at UFC 330, defeating first-time welterweight title challenger Ian Machado Garry via unanimous decision to break a tie with Silva and strip the Hall of Famer of one helluva distinction in promotional lore.If consistency is key, then Makhachev (29-1, 18 finishes) is the key master.There’s not a lot of smoke and mirrors to his strategy.Pressure leads to takedowns; takedowns lead to grappling dominance; grappling dominance leads to suffering.You know it’s coming.
Makhachev’s opponent knows it’s coming.You – yes, you, the reader – do just about as good a job of stopping it as does his opponent.If Machado Garry (17-2, eight finishes) was considered to have any basic advantage in this one it was going to be from distance.
That notion dissipated when left high kick from Makhachev knocked down the Irishman in the second round, blowing the frame wide open for the champ.At least the unsuccessful challenger can hang his hat on a more competitive effort against Makhachev than was put forth by Jack Della Maddalena in November, when the Aussie lost his belt in a noncompetitive, survival-mode decision loss.He offered intelligent resistance to Makhachev’s tried-and-true offensive gameplan and even got in some third-round licks and fourth.Nonetheless, the belt remained around the waist of Makhachev, with scores of 49-46, 49-46 and 48-47 in his favor.
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