Islam Makhachev could beat Khabib Nurmagomedov, says Mike Swick

UFC lightweight Islam Makhachev could beat former divisional kingpin Khabib Nurmagomedov, says former UFC fighter Mike Swick.

Swick competed in the UFC for many years but these days he lives in Thailand and own and operates AKA Thailand. In the United States, Makhachev and Nurmagomedov train at AKA San Jose, so Swick is well versed in both men and their skills. While Nurmagomedov was for many years the best lightweight in the UFC, he retired from the sport earlier this year and now the other lightweight fighters have the opportunity to win the title. One of those fighters is Makhachev, who recently defeated Dan Hooker for his ninth straight win.

Makhachev is now in line to fight for the UFC lightweight title with, at worst, one more win, so we may soon need to start talking about him as a future world champion if he beats Charles Oliveira. Of course, that’s because Makhachev wouldn’t have to face Nurmagomedov, who is happily retired from the sport. But if that fight were to ever happen, then if you ask Swick, Makhachev would have a good chance to win that fight.

Speaking to John Hyon Ko in a recent interview with The Allstar, Swick admitted that as good as Nurmagomedov is and was, he thinks Makhachev could be the man to beat him.

“We’ve always said for years cause everyone’s like ‘who can beat Khabib? Who can match Khabib’ and everyone’s expecting us to say UFC fighter in the division or number two competitor or number two ranked fighter, number three ranked fighter. We’ve always said Islam. If anyone that could possibly beat Khabib or put up a great match or catch him or something, we’ve always felt that it was going to be Islam,” Swick said.

Do you agree with Mike Swick that Islam Makhachev could defeat Khabib Nurmagomedov?