Islam Ramazanovich Makhachev (Russian: Ислам Рамазанович Махачев; born 27 October 1991) is a Russian professional mixed martial artist and former sambo competitor. He currently competes in the Welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is the current UFC Welterweight Champion and former UFC Lightweight Champion. Makhachev has competed in mixed martial arts professionally since 2010 and signed to the UFC in October 2014, making his debut in May of 2015. In February 2023 Makhachev defeated featherweight champion Alexander Volkonovski to become the #1 UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings. After UFC 322 Makhachev retained #1 in the UFC men's pound-for-pound rankings. As a national and international sambo athlete Makhachev won a gold medal in the 74 kg division at the Russian National Combat Sambo in 2014 and 2016. He won an international championship in November 2016, when he won the world gold medal at the FIAS World Combat Sambo Championship. Makhachev holds several UFC lightweight records, including the longest winning streak (14), the most title-fight victories (5), the most successful title defenses (4), and the highest significant-strike accuracy (59.5%). He defeated Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322 to become the eleventh double champion in UFC history. After defeating Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330, Makhachev holds the longest winning streak in UFC history (17). After surpassing Anderson Silva's winning streak, Makhachev is widely considered to be among the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. Fight Matrix ranks him as the 2nd greatest lightweight in UFC history after his mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov. He is also ranked in the top 20 welterweights of all time.
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