Russian UFC champion Islam Makhachev may receive the main award of the World MMA Awards

The Russian champion of the UFC, the main promotion in mixed martial arts (MMA), in lightweight (up to 70 kg) Islam Makhachev can become the owner of a prize that his great friend and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov never got. This is the title of the owner of the main award of the World MMA Awards – the best fighter of the year. Makhachev’s rivals in the fight for him will be four well-known athletes, but their achievements in recent months still look less bright.

The organizers of the World MMA Awards have published a list of contenders for awards in various categories. The winners in each are determined by the vote of fans on the official website of the award, which in mixed martial arts has almost the same status as the “Oscar” in the cinema. It will end on September 30, after which the awards ceremony will take place. The current one can be very pleasant for Russia.

The World MMA Awards have been in existence since 2008. Russia had its laureates, but not in the most prestigious among the nominations, “Best Fighter”. Surprisingly, even lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov, who some experts consider the king of mixed martial arts of all time, failed to receive the award. Nurmagomedov did not suffer a single defeat in his career that ended in 2020, and achieved the brightest successes in 2018. In April, after defeating Al Iaquinta, he became the first Russian athlete to win the UFC title, in fact, the equivalent of a world title, and in October he won a match that caused a huge stir. Nurmagomedov was opposed by the Irishman Conor McGregor, who was considered the king of MMA before his rise. In that match, he had no chance against the Russian and suffered an early defeat from him in the fourth round after the champion applied a choke.

Khabib Nurmagomedov, of course, found himself on the list of contenders for an honorary award. But the popular American Daniel Cormier managed to get ahead of him, who won the heavyweight championship, although, strictly speaking, his success in the match with Stipe Miocic was clearly inferior in value and effectiveness to Nurmagomedov’s success in the match with McGregor.

Now another Dagestan fighter, who was trained by Khabib Nurmagomedov for a long time, has found himself on the contender’s list. This is Islam Makhachev. During the period that the organizers of the World MMA Awards take into account, he had two top fights. The first one took place in October 2022. In it, Makhachev won the championship title in the same lightweight division, defeating the highly rated Brazilian Charles Oliveira in less than two rounds, with whom he will fight again in October. Oliveira finished off a painful hold called “triangle”, also nominated for an award – as one of the best submissions (“knockouts” with a wrestling technique).

The next duel of Islam Makhachev, in February, was even more noticeable. In it, he met with the Australian Alex Volkanovski, who had risen to his category from the previous one, up to 66 kg. In most unofficial classifications of the strongest fighters, regardless of the weight category, it was Volkanovski who occupied the top line. The fight turned out to be extremely tense, but according to its results, the decision of the judges went to Makhachev.

At the same time, it seems that he is the clear favorite of the competition. Four well-known fighters compete with Islam Makhachev – Englishman Leon Edwards, American Aljamain Sterling, Nigerian Israel Adesanya and Swede Sadibu Sai. Sai performs in the PFL promotion, which is far from being as reputable as the UFC. The rest are champions of the main promotion: Sterling – in the category up to 61 kg, Edwards – up to 77 kg, Adesanya – up to 84 kg. All have fresh title fights behind them. But, for example, Aljamain Sterling won his fight against Henry Cejudo by a thin, split decision, and Israel Adesanya lost to Alex Pereira in the fall of 2022 before taking revenge on him in April. Only the achievements of Leon Edwards seem almost indisputable: he defeated superstar Kamaru Usman twice in a row.

Russian heavyweight Sergey Pavlovich can also become one of the heroes of the ceremony. His name appears in the “Breakthrough of the Year” nomination. In April, Pavlovich, having destroyed the American Curtis Blaydes, won the eighth consecutive victory by knockout in the first round, which, apparently, brought him closer to the champion title.

Alexey Dospekhov