Beneil Dariush on Islam Makhachev’s toughest fight at lightweight

Beneil Dariush has an fascinating decide for the UFC light-weight who has the perfect probability of dethroning Islam Makhachev.

Makhachev (27-1 MMA, 16-1 UFC) retained his light-weight title when he submitted Renato Moicano in Spherical 1 of their UFC 311 headliner  at Intuit Dome. He was initially scheduled to face Arman Tsarukyan, who pulled out simply at some point earlier than their battle as a consequence of a again damage.

Makhachev already holds wins over 4 of the highest six ranked UFC lightweights. Whereas Dariush thinks Tsarukyan would have been a stern take a look at for Makhachev, he sees Max Holloway’s attributes posing issues.

“You recognize who can be fascinating is Max Holloway,” Dariush advised MMA on Sirius XM. “I feel Max Holloway might be an fascinating battle for Makhachev as a result of he’s laborious to carry, he has glorious cardio and he throws a number of quantity, and I feel these are issues that might be tough for Makhachev.

“Then, apparently sufficient, in the event you watch the battle with Merab (Dvalishvili), he has glorious cardio and he was in a position to take action a lot with that glorious cardio (vs. Nurmagomedov). I don’t keep in mind the final time I noticed Holloway within the fourth or the fifth spherical and he’s slowing down. So I feel he has one thing related.”

Holloway (26-8 MMA, 22-8 UFC) made good in his light-weight return when he placed on a hanging clinic towards Justin Gaethje, earlier than knocking him out with a second left at UFC 300. He returned to featherweight the battle after, however was knocked out by champion Ilia Topuria at UFC 308.

Dariush (22-6-1 MMA, 16-6 UFC) is but to battle Makhachev, however is on a two-fight dropping skid. After Tsarukyan withdrew from UFC 311, Dariush was slicing weight in hopes of going through Makhachev, however the promotion opted to go together with his opponent Moicano as an alternative.