Islam Makhachev and Khamzat Chimaev will fight Brazilians Charles Oliveira and Paulo Costa in Abu Dhabi

In October, Abu Dhabi will host a UFC tournament, the main promotion in mixed martial arts (MMA), in which two extremely popular fighters in Russia will enter the octagon at once. Islam Makhachev, who represents her, will defend his champion title in the 70 kg category in a duel with the Brazilian Charles Oliveira, whom he defeated last year. And native of Chechnya, Khamzat Chimaev, playing for Sweden, who has a bright series of victories and is close to the title, will meet with one of the most dangerous opponents in the weight category up to 77 kg – Oliveira’s compatriot Paulo Costa.

The UFC, the main promotion in mixed martial arts, has announced the lineup for the main fights of its tournament, which will be held on October 21 in Abu Dhabi. It is very relevant for Russia, because they will feature two extremely popular fighters in the country.

Islam Makhachev fell to fight in the central duel of the tournament. He will defend the champion title in the category up to 70 kg, special for Russia. It was dominated for several years by his undefeated and hugely popular compatriot Khabib Nurmagomedov, who, after his retirement, became the coach of his friend Makhachev and helped him climb to the top. The Russian won the vacant title at that time in October last year, meeting with Charles Oliveira and defeating the Brazilian: in the second round, with a powerful blow, he sent him to the floor, and then applied a choke hold that was deadly in its effectiveness. The status of a superstar of the highest rank Islam Makhachev, now the only domestic champion of the UFC, secured in February. In the fight that took place in Perth, with difficulty, by the decision of the judges, he coped with the famous Australian Alexander Volkanovski, who had risen to lightweight from the previous one (up to 66 kg), who led the classification of the strongest fighters, regardless of the weight category. The option of a rematch between Volkanovski and Makhachev seemed very likely. But the Australian athlete eventually chose to return to his native weight and meet the Mexican Yair Rodriguez in it, postponing the re-fight with the Russian. As a result, as expected, the UFC organized another rematch for him, albeit less interesting, already against Oliveira. He achieved this right in June by defeating a strong American fighter of Iranian origin, Beneil Dariyush.

Much more intrigue with the other match of the tournament. The native of Chechnya Khamzat Chimaev representing Sweden will fight in it. He made his debut in the UFC relatively recently, in 2020, but managed to turn into an extremely popular character in a short time due to the flamboyance of his style. There are no misfires in his track record yet, and in the UFC he won six victories in a row, five of them ahead of schedule. Surely now he would not be in fourth place in the middleweight ranking, but even higher, very close to the top, if it were not for the trouble that happened during his previous participation in the UFC competitions. At the tournament in September last year, Chimaev was supposed to fight against the famous American Nate Diaz, but did not meet the category limit at the weigh-in. As a result, Chimaev nevertheless entered the octagon, but his opponent was replaced by a less famous than Diaz, his compatriot Kevin Holland, whom the favorite forced to surrender in the first round.

Meanwhile, the new opponent of Khamzat Chimaev looks more dangerous. The public also loves Paulo Costa, and in his biography there are successes in matches with top fighters like Cuban Yoel Romero and American Luke Rockhold, plus a whole scattering of spectacular knockouts. True, there are two failures in it, also in fights with athletes from the highest echelon. In 2020, Costa missed his chance to take the title, losing to New Zealander Israel Adesanya, and in 2021 he was defeated by Italian Marvin Vettori.

Alexey Dospekhov