Islam Makhachev almost broke a top-10 lightweight’s arm on his journey to becoming a UFC champion.
Makhachev forged a destructive and dominant path to the title following his one and only career defeat against Adriano Martins in 2015.
The Dagestani won 10 straight fights to earn his first title shot, a run that culminated in Makhachev submitting Charles Oliveira to become lightweight king in October 2022.
Oliveira is far from the only man to fall to Makhachev in one-sided fashion. In fact, one of the Brazilian’s fellow highly ranked lightweights remains the second quickest victory on the Russian’s UFC record — and perhaps the most brutal.
Islam Makhachev looked set to snap Dan Hooker’s arm with brutal UFC 267 kimura
Makhachev began to stake his claim for a championship opportunity after stopping Thiago Moises in round four of his very first UFC main event. But the Dagestani still had his doubters, having not faced and beaten a top-10 contender at the time.
He answered those critics at UFC 267, which took place in Abu Dhabi in October 2021 and was headlined by Glover Teixeira’s shock submission of Jan Blachowicz to win the light heavyweight title.
Before the two title fights, Makhachev entered the Octagon for his toughest test to date on paper against the No. 6-ranked Dan Hooker. The Dagestani evidently did not get the memo about the step up in competition he was facing, as Makhachev ran through Hooker in under two and a half minutes.
The finish came on the ground, with Makhachev following cornerman Khabib Nurmagomedov’s passionate cries of advice to lock in a gruesome kimura.
Hooker did not appear to tap, with a verbal call instead prompting referee Dan Movahedi to intervene.
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Islam Makhachev said Dan Hooker begged referee to ‘stop’ the fight
Reflecting on the result during his post-fight press conference, Makhachev added context behind just how brutal the submission was by recalling Hooker’s reaction.
The then-future champ revealed the Kiwi fan-favorite had screamed for the referee to stop the fight.
“I think he himself underestimated my finishing ability,” Makhachev said in the post-fight press conference. “I went for kimura and he started backing up trying to defend it.
“At that moment you can rewatch it, Khabib told me to step over his head. As I did both of his hands were under me and he started screaming, ‘Stop, stop it!’
“I could hear him but the referee didn’t because of the noise that the crowd were making at that moment, and I have even seen a picture of him being annoyed with the referee who didn’t stop it on time…I really hope he isn’t injured.”
Hooker escaped with his arm intact on that occasion, though he’s since suffered two breaks as a result of his war with Jalin Turner in the summer of 2023.
More recently, ‘The Hangman’ has been sidelined due to a broken hand.