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Islam Makhachev's camp has not taken kindly to Ilia Topuria's threat to finish him with the Dagestani star's favorite submission. At least, that appears to be the case given a recent tweet penned by Ali Abdelaziz, who is the UFC lightweight champion's manager.
First, he tagged Makhachev, identifying him before singing his praises. He pointed out Makhachev's accomplishments in the UFC, but stopped just short of naming Topuria. Instead, Abdelaziz framed his tweet as isolated praise for his client, who is one of the greatest fighters of all time.
"@MAKHACHEVMMA has finished all his last 9 opponents, nobody in UFC history has done this. Islam kidnaps people's souls and he will keep doing it to all of them until someone proves me wrong"
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While it is technically true that Makhachev has finished all of his last 9 opponents, he didn't win all of his last 9 fights via finish. There is an outlier in Alexander Volkanovski, against whom he got a hard-fought unanimous decision win at UFC 284. He did, however, knock him out at UFC 294.
Topuria, meanwhile, also has a stellar record. Not only is he undefeated, but he is coming off back-to-back knockout wins over Volkanovski himself, and the widely beloved Max Holloway at UFC 298 and UFC 307 respectively, with both men being among the greatest featherweights of all time.
The win against Holloway, in particular, was impressive, as he had never been knocked out prior to fighting Topuria. More than that, it was debatable whether he had ever even been knocked down before the Topuria fight.
Ilia Topuria previously threatened to finish Islam Makhachev by knockout
The rivalry between Islam Makhachev and Ilia Topuria has ramped up as of late. After the Dagestani grappler successfully defended his lightweight title by submitting Renato Moicano with a D'Arce choke at UFC 311, 'El Matador' took to X/Twitter with a taunt.
"Islam, if I want to, I can finish youu. If I want to, I can knock you out. I'll make it look easy. See you soon"
Topuria has since made a permanent move to lightweight in pursuit of a lightweight title fight with Makhachev. In doing so, he relinquished his featherweight title, which will be fought over by Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes at UFC 314.
