Upcoming Fight for Islam Makhachev: Potential Contenders Explored

Watch Upcoming Fight for Islam Makhachev: Potential Contenders Explored - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Who do you want to see Islam fight next?

00:02I guess Rachmaninoff is the guy that people think would be up next.

00:05But as I say, we're going into the break.

00:07There are a lot of potential contenders for him.

00:10This is a stack.

00:11Like sometimes you get these divisions and it gets boring because like, dude, he cleaned it out or there's really not a contender.

00:17But there really are a lot of good fighters in this division.

00:21Well, look, it's like if you think he's got a chance to become the GOAT, he's got the best division to do that with.

00:27Because it's the deepest division in the sport from the standpoint of 1 to 15.

00:31And look, you mentioned Shavkat Rachmaninoff.

00:33He's kind of the boogeyman of this division.

00:35He's been hurt.

00:36But if it's not him, how about the two guys on the undercard that scored breakthrough knockouts?

00:41Carlos Protes and his cigarettes and Michael Morales.

00:43How about the fact that Islam seems to want to fight against former champion Kamaru Usman?

00:48How about the fact that lightweight champion Ilya Teporia, number two pound for pound, has been calling out Islam left and right?

00:56The point here is whether it's Ian Gary, whether it's anyone.

00:59You just got me on that one, Teporia.

01:02I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah.

01:03Like, yeah, I want to see that.

01:04Either way, it's going to be big business.

01:07He's taken, Islam has taken the rub from Habib, right?

01:10He's a legitimate star.

01:11You can put him anywhere in the world.

01:13I'd love to see him, though, against someone who can challenge him physically.

01:17And for me, that's Shavkat Rachmaninoff.

01:19Some of the other guys I think are a little bit too green for someone as complete as Islam.

01:23But if they go the Kamaru route to sell pay-per-views or they go to Teporia, you're going to be entertained at the end of the day.