“We’re going to take the lightweight title back home,” Khabib Nurmagomedov believes Islam Makhachev will fight for the title after UFC 267
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Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev and Dan Hooker
The protege of former UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev is going to face the number 6th ranked Lightweight fighter, Dan Hooker at UFC 267 which is going to take place in Abu Dhabi on 30th October.
This fight is important for Makhachev’s career as Khabib Nurmagomedov believes with a win against Dan Hooker he will take his first step towards claiming the Lightweight world title. Talking about Islam Makhachev’s preparation in his interview with ‘The National’, Khabib says,
“Islam’s looking great, and very soon we’re going to take the lightweight title back home. Like it was before in the past three years. Right now, they have a champion. But very soon we’re going to take this. Islam is ready to go.”
Makhachev is entering into this fight with an eight-fight winning streak and he is having the longest active win streak behind the UFC Lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira. ‘The Eagle’ believes once Islam Makhachev will take care of Dan Hooker at UFC 267, he will be ready to fight the winner of Poirier vs Oliveira.
Khabib added, “This is a big challenge for him, Islam is No 5, Hooker is No 6. It’s going to be a very big fight for Islam. And I really believe that after this fight Islam has to fight for the title.”
“Right now, he has an eight-fight win streak. After Hooker, inshallah it’s going to become nine fights. How many times do we see in UFC a fighter win a couple of fights, three or four, and they fight for the title?”
Khabib Nurmagomedov continued, “But what about Islam, with a nine-fight win streak? He already has eight. After Hooker, 100 percent he’s going deserve to fight for the title.” {h/t The National}
Khabib Nurmagomedov expects Islam Makhachev to finish Dan Hooker in the very first round
Dan Hooker snapped his two-fight losing streak with his latest win coming against Nasrat Haqparast in his last fight at UFC 266, but still, Khabib Nurmagomedov believes Islam Makhachev is going to be too much for him to handle.
He added, “Islam is going to finish this guy in the first round, end of the first round. If Islam catches him one time, this guy’s finished. This guy doesn’t use wrestling; he’s just a kicker. When Islam is going to catch him, he’s going to understand this is a different kind of power. Different kind of grappling, wrestling.”
“I really believe the end of the first round, when Islam catches him, Islam will finish him, with triangle choke or armbar. Something like that.”
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