Islam Makhachev’s major career decision had led to huge developments in two weight classes.
After Jack Della Maddalena defeated Belal Muhammad at UFC 315 to win the welterweight title, Makhachev moved up a division and vacated his lightweight belt in the process.
The vacant belt at 155 pounds will now be on the line in the main event of UFC 317 this Saturday where Ilia Topuria faces Charles Oliveira.
For Makhachev, his full attention is now on competing at 170 pounds for the first time as he looks to become a two-time UFC champion.
While Topuria has shared advice to Della Maddalena on how to beat his next challenger, the pound-for-pound number one is seemingly facing some challenges before he even steps inside the Octagon as a welterweight.
Islam Makhachev admits that he’s struggling to put on additional weight ahead of welterweight move
Islam Makhachev has been speaking about moving up to welterweight for a long time.
Not only does the Russian want to prove his dominance by achieving success in a second weight class, moving away from lightweight also means that his training camps won’t be so heavily focused on making weight.
There has been a lot of talk about how effective Makhachev will be at a higher weight class without the stresses of a difficult cut, with his team believing that it will bring the best out of him.
While this may still be the case, the 33-year-old recently revealed that his move hasn’t been without some difficulties.
Makhachev admitted in an interview with MMA Junkie that though he is trying to put on some additional weight the smart way, his body hasn’t adapted very well to this at this stage.
“I will try to be big. You know, it’s not easy man. All my life I cut weight but now, when I want to be big, my weight stays in the same position. I try to lift more. We do some program and like slowly, slowly we bring some, maybe 2 kg [roughly 4.4 pounds] right now and it’s very hard but I don’t want to be big by food, eating and not training. I want to be with muscles you know, I want to do training, a right lifting program and bring some muscles.”
Islam Makhachev didn’t expect his welterweight move to happen ahead of UFC 315
It was made perfectly clear ahead of UFC 315 that if Belal Muhammad, who has trained with Islam Makhachev in the past, was able to keep hold of the welterweight title, the lightweight champion would be staying put.
Makhachev told MMA Junkie that he was confident that Muhammad would beat Jack Della Maddalena but he was very impressed by the Australian’s performance on the night.
At the same time, the pound-for-pound number one, like many, was surprised by Muhammad’s approach to the fight with the defending champion not attempting to implement his wrestling earlier in the fight.
“I was surprised [by] how he fought,” Makhachev told MMA Junkie. “I was surprised by his game plan. I think he made a mistake. He had the option but he didn’t use it. He started to wrestle in the last round maybe. You have to wrestle from the first round if you plan to wrestle.”