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Islam Makhachev's coach, Javier Mendez, considers his pupil the most well-rounded fighter in the UFC lightweight division. Mendez has also explained his reason for not referring to Makhachev as the most well-rounded fighter over everybody.
MMA fans see Makhachev as unstoppable at the moment. The no.1 pound-for-pound best fighter in the UFC is on a 15-fight winning streak, the second-longest in UFC history.
It's quite difficult to create a list of men who could beat the Dagestani phenom. To his coach, Mendez, only two men can rival Makhachev's well-rounded greatness inside the octagon. And they're either no longer active or not in his weight class. In a recent episode of The Javier and Mo Show on YouTube, Mendez said :
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"He's [Makhachev's] the most well-rounded fighter in the lightweight division. And the reason why I don't go 'all time' only because of Demetrious [Johnson]. I think Demetrious is unbelievable. Jon Jones is another unbelievable well-rounded guy, but in the lightweight division, I can easily say Islam is, hands down [the most well-rounded].
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He continued:
"And I've been saying that a long time but to to say 'over everybody', there's there's two guys that are in contention for that title. And that's Jon Jones and Demetrious."
Check out Javier Mendez's comments about Islam Makhachev below (26:40):
Islam Makhachev's coach isn't involved in matchmaking
At the moment, the most burning question about Islam Makhachev's next fight is whether or not he'll accept the massive bout with former UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria. The bout, which is expected to headline UFC 317 International Fight Week in June, has been reported to have guaranteed Topuria a spot in the main event. The MMA world is just waiting for Makhachev's decision.
In the aforementioned episode of The Javier and Mo Show, when asked how much of an influence Javier Mendez has over his fighters' matchmaking decisions, he said:
"since 2012, I've been involved exactly, absolutely 0%. Absolutely, positively 0% in regards to any of Khabib's [Nurmagomedov's] crew. From when he was doing [things] back then with his father and whoever manager he had. When Makhachev's manager Ali [Abdelaziz] came on board, I had zero to do with any of that. I just wait for them to tell me what's going on and we prepare for whoever we have in front of us." [5:12]
