MOSCOW, November 7 Former champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC ) in lightweight weight, Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov congratulated compatriot Islam Makhachev for getting into first place in the UFC rankings, regardless of weight categories (P4P).
On Tuesday, the UFC put Makhachev on the first line of the P4P rating, the Russian displaced the American Jon Jones from it. For the first time he topped the rating regardless of weight categories. On October 21, Makhachev defended his UFC lightweight title by knocking out the holder of the featherweight division belt, Australian Alexander Volkanovski.
““This is already legendary, brother,” Khabib wrote on Instagram (the activities of Meta (social networks Facebook and Instagram) are banned in Russia as extremist).
Nurmagomedov later published another post in which he stated that Makhachev continues to make history. “This is an unprecedented case when two fighters, raised from childhood by the same coach, in the same city, in the same gym, who trained side by side for a long time, become champions in the same weight in the best league in the world. And also both became the best fighters, regardless of weight categories of its time. And believe me, this is not the point yet, Islam continues to write history. Be grateful and know that everything comes from the Almighty — both bad and good, and everything that was brought to you from above is historical facts that are unprecedented in this sport,» wrote Nurmagomedov.
Also, the Russian was congratulated by his manager Ali Abdel-Aziz.
«»This is history, two P4P kings from the same city and the same school. I know that «Uncle Abdulmanap would be proud of his humble school and what its students have achieved. They are some of the best people in the world I have met, and some of the toughest,» Abdel-Aziz wrote.
Makhachev is 32 years old, during his MMA career he won 25 victories and suffered one defeat. Jones, 36, is the organization's heavyweight champion with a record of 27 wins, one defeat, and another fight was declared a no contest. On November 11, he was supposed to defend his title in a fight against Miocic, but dropped out due to a torn pectoral muscle.