What’s Next for the UFC’s Lightweight Division?

Photo courtesy of BBC.com

The lightweight division has a champion, and his name is Islam Makhachev.

The Dagestani combat sambo world champion looked extremely impressive in his title fight against Charles Oliveira, submitting the former champ via arm triangle in the second round. Is this the beginning of the Islam era at Lightweight? Or is there a boogeyman in the wings coming up from Featherweight? We will likely get our answer on February 12 at UFC 284 in Perth.

Makhachev vs. Volkanovski at UFC 284 makes all the sense in the world, and given the callout post-fight from Khabib and Makhachev and the response by Volkanovski, it seems inevitable. The hype is already building.

Volkanovski, the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, will seek a second belt and further cement himself as one of the greatest of all time in the sport. And doing it at home, no less. Makhachev, looking to defend his belt, takes out the number one in the world and begins his reign of dominance in front of Volkanovski’s fans.

It’s got the makings to be one of the most-viewed fights of all time. But the fight game is fickle, and we rarely get to see the matchup we want when we want it.

A big fight at UFC 281 is on the horizon between Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier on November 12. Those two are box office getters themselves and would be unique matchups for Makhachev. There’s also another highly talented grappler in the division fresh off of a win at UFC 280 who looked very impressive: Beneil Dariush. Makhachev was supposed to fight Dariush in March, but Dariush sustained an injury and could not fight.

There are many ways the UFC could go, but barring the unforeseen, it looks like we’re going to get a super fight in February.