If Islam Makhachev defends his title for a third time this weekend, he will etch his name into the history books alongside some of the greats.
The UFC lightweight champion faces Dustin Poirier at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday night. And should he win, it will be his third defence of the belt since winning it in October of 2022 from Charles Oliveira.
The current record for title defences at lightweight is three, which is held by BJ Penn, Benson Henderson, Frankie Edgar and his teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov. It was expected that the latter would smash the record, but he retired early for family reasons leaving it all tied up.
- RECORD SETTING: Islam Makhachev will equal UFC record that stands for almost 15 years if he beats Dustin Poirier at UFC 302
Islam Makhachev could equal 15-year record with a win at UFC 302
BJ Penn’s UFC 107 defence against Diego Sanchez saw history made as the lightweight title was defended for a record third time. Little did anybody know that his record wouldn’t be broken for another 15 years at least.
Since then, Edgar and Henderson managed to hold on to the belt after winning it, while Nurmagomedov had a lengthy multi-year reign that goes down as the longest in promotional history. However, he couldn’t break the record after tying it with a win over Justin Gaethje in 2020.
Makhachev took the gold from Charles Oliveira in 2022, who had inherited the vacant belt from Nurmagomedov a year prior. Since then, he has defended twice against pound-for-pound great and featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
However, he faces a different type of test in Poirier, who is much bigger than Volkanosvski and has an impressive boxing range. Interestingly, Nurmagomedov has already set out the blueprint to beat ‘The Diamond’ when he submitted him back in 2019.
Khabib Nurmagomedov backs Islam Makhachev to break long-standing UFC record
In order to make history and shatter the record that has stood for a decade and a half, Makhachev must first get through Poirier. Once he does that, it is expected he will defend once more against Arman Tsarukyan in a rematch that would see him take his place in history.
Otherwise, he may follow the path of Penn and move up to welterweight to pursue Leon Edwards. The pair have sparred together and both seem keen on such a matchup, although Makhachev turned it down on short notice for UFC 300 in April.
Either way, Nurmagomedov is confident that his teammate can go one further than even he did, telling UFC Embedded cameras: “Islam is feeling very good, honestly very sharp.
“This is a very important fight for him. This is his third title defence, very, very close to breaking the record for all-time lightweight defence. He’s very close.”