David Larsen 
@adminUFC lightweight contender Islam Makhchev has set his eyes on his next opponents which are Tony Ferguson or Rafael Dos Anjos. Makhachev got his latest win at UFC on ESPN 26 against Thiago Moises via submission in the fourth round of their main event clash. Righter after his win he went on to call out Tony Ferguson, who has been arch-rival of Islam’s best friend Khabib. Tony and Khabib were scheduled to fight multiple times but the actual fight never took place.
“If they were to give me a choice, let’s do it with Tony because we have good history with him,” Makhachev told reporters at the UFC on ESPN 26 post-fight press conference. “Khabib was supposed to fight with him like five, six times. Let’s finish this, you know. I’m going to finish this. I’m going to show Tony not Khabib level. People don’t understand how Khabib pressures. I can’t explain to you guys, but I think you know everything.”
In another interview, Islam made a bold statement saying that Tony Ferguson should retire and he wants to help him retire by beating him up and finishing his career.
“I just want to help (Tony Ferguson) retire,” Makhachev said to ESPN. “He lost his last three fights, he has to retire because all these guys from the top 10, all his three opponents, beat him very bad. I think he’s old now. He has to retire, but I can help him.”
Before his fight at UFC on ESPN 26 against Moises, he also stated that he has the interest to fight Rafael Dos Anjos. the duo was assigned to fight each other previously at UFC 254. However, it was reported that dos Anjos tested positive for COVID-19 and he was removed from the bout. The Fight was rescheduled for November 2020 at UFC Fight Night: Felder vs. dos Anjos. But this time Makhachev was forced to pull from the event due to a staph infection.
“RDA is good for me next, but this guy always ran,” Makhachev told during the media session at the UFC Apex. “Now he says, ‘I want to fight with Conor or Khabib, and last week, Conor slapped him at the weigh-in, and he did nothing. This guy always ran. This guy is old. Yeah, I understand him. He want to make money, but I want to help him retire.”
“He has good skills,” Makhachev said. “He’s good everywhere. Because my last opponent had a very good striking game and everybody knows about his wrestling, grappling, but this guy has good striking, good grappling.”
Islam Makhachev Talks About Khabib
Islam Makhachev also talked about his best friends and training partner Khabib Nurmagomedov’s importance in his fighting career.
“If somebody says I’m almost the same as Khabib, I agree with this,” Makhachev said. “I want to be like Khabib, you know. He’s a great man, he’s champion, he has a lot of money and he has everything, but he’s still a humble guy.
“He’s coming to U.S. without his family. He stays here one, two months to help us. He doesn’t take money, nothing. He just comes and does the whole thing. We came to U.S. and he rent big house for team and a lot of cars for team and nobody pay. He pay for everything. I cannot explain Khabib. He does a lot of stuff, but not everyone knows this.”
