In pursuit of Nurmagomedov: which of the Russian fighters can win the UFC title in the near future

Peter Jan

At the moment, the representative of the bantamweight is one of the most obvious contenders for the title among the Russians. In the UFC, Jan held five fights, in each of which he won, and in two of them he defeated elite athletes. First, he dealt with the former contender for the flyweight title John Dodson, and then dealt with the strong Jimmy Rivera.

These successes helped Jan soar to fifth place in the UFC bantamweight rating and come close to the title fight with Henry Sehudo. In fact, at the moment, only one successful performance is separating him from this battle. According to rumors, even before the end of the year, the Russian can hold his sixth match under the auspices of the promotion, and if successful, establish himself in the status of the first applicant.

For a long time, the press talked about a possible battle between Jan and Aljamein Sterling, but so far there has been no official confirmation of this from the UFC. From the point of view of the position in the general classification, this duel is for Peter the ideal option in order to clearly indicate his claims to the belt.

At the moment, the American takes second place in the ranking, second only to Marlon Moraes. However, the Brazilian recently met with Sehudo and could not succeed, so in the near future he did not have to wait for the next title fight.

Jan’s position is complicated by two factors. Firstly, in June, he underwent surgery on his elbow, because of which he did not train for several months. It is still unknown how this will affect the domestic athlete and whether he will be able to return to the octagon in his best shape.

Secondly, Sehudo also owns the title in the easiest category and is not going to voluntarily part with it. Thus, the American alternately protects the belt in one division, then in another, which takes time. In this regard, even if he gets the opportunity to compete for the title, Peter will have to wait for his turn, because the last time Henry defended it was the lightweight championship.

Zabut Magomedsharipov

Soon Zabit Magomedsharipov may also get a chance to fight for the championship belt. Like his compatriot, Magomedsharipov never lost in the UFC, however, faced with a less stellar opposition. At the moment, his only serious rival can be called Jeremy Stevens, who was previously in the top 10 featherweight rating. The rest, the Russian had to deal with experienced, but not enough stars from the sky vis-à-vis, however, and he dealt with them mainly ahead of schedule.

As in the case of Jan, a distinctive feature of Magomedsharipov is his entertainment. The athlete accustomed his fans to both spectacular kicks and unexpected painful and suffocating tricks in the stalls. Zabita’s assets already include two awards for “Performance of the evening”, one for “Fight of the evening”, as well as an award for “Painful reception of the year”. It is noteworthy that initially his knee lever in the fight with Brandon Davis was not even included in the number of the best tricks of the show.

However, not the most successful performance in the battle with Stevens slightly shook the position of Magomedsharipov as one of the most talented promotion fighters. In the event of a bright victory over the American, his next fight could well be regarded as an eliminator (a fight for the status of a contender for the championship), but instead he got Calvin Kitter as an opponent.

It could be said that Magomedsharipov is in almost the same position as Yang, but unexpected health problems compounded his situation. Because of this, he was forced to refuse to meet with Kitter and now runs the risk of falling in the ranking. For the speedy rise up, Zabit needs to recover in the very near future and continue to win as spectacularly as possible. In this case, he may well repeat the path of Conor McGregor and the next year enter the cell with Max Holloway.

Alexander Volkov

Until October of last year, it was believed that it was the heavyweight who was the first among the Russians to get the opportunity to repeat the success of Nurmagomedov and become the second domestic UFC champion in history. However, the most offensive defeat from Derrick Lewis crossed Volkov’s plans, delaying his ascension to the top of the division for a long time.

Since that time, Volkov never entered the octagon, and his attempt to return to the show in St. Petersburg failed. He was supposed to fight the legendary Alistair Overeem, but withdrew from the competition for health reasons, giving rise to rumors in the media about the failure of the doping test. True, they subsequently did not find confirmation, and Alexander remained in the UFC without repeating the fate of Ivan Shtyrkov.

It is noteworthy that despite a year-long downtime, Volkov practically did not lose positions in the ranking. As of September 2019, he continues to occupy sixth place in the ranking table and is actually in one success from getting into the top 3, and a maximum of two from the title fight.

The UFC Fight Night tournament in Moscow will become for Volkov one of the key in his career. The victory over Junior dos Santos guarantees him a rise in the rating and will strengthen in the status of one of the main hopes of the division. Heavyweights always reached a peak a little later than the rest, in connection with which young athletes are much more valued. Curtis Blades and Alexander Wolves are the only representatives of the ten strongest, whose age is less than 31 years.

Thus, the UFC is very beneficial for the Russian athlete to enter the elite of the category and gain a foothold in it for a long time. After all, most of the current top heavyweights either passed their peak, or after a couple of years will think about quitting sports. The promotion needs new blood, and Volkov may well become the one who takes a place on the top for a long time. True, for this you need to get the better of dos Santos and close the gaps in the struggle.

Islam Makhachev

For several years, Khabib Nurmagomedov and his father Abdulmanap publicly stated that it was Makhachev who would become the next holder of the UFC lightweight title. However, in the four years since he joined the planet’s largest MMA promotion, he has not been able to fully meet these expectations. Already in his second fight, he unexpectedly lost to Adrian Martins, after which there was a positive doping test, as well as two canceled fights.

At first, Islam, due to injury, refused to fight with Michel Prazeres, and then was removed from the battle with Francisco Trinaldo. This was due to an incident after the end of the UFC 229 tournament and the investigation of the Nevada Athletic Commission (NSAC).

Perhaps it was the latest events that led to the fact that Makhachev’s ascent to the summit was slightly delayed. So, only at the beginning of 2019 did he finally make it to the top 15 lightweight rating, and his success in the battle with Davy Ramos ensured him only one line up. In many ways, this suggests that the UFC is afraid to give advances to the heir to Habib, preferring to wait time.

Another limiting factor may be the fact that Makhachev does not conduct the most vivid fights. Yes, in the last six fights he practically did not leave a chance with his vis-a-vis, but he often acted as the second number and did not look spectacular enough. At the moment, he does not dominate the cell, as Nurmagomedov does, while he does not please the eye with extravagant blows and tricks, like Magomedsharipov.

But it is worth noting that entertainment is not a mandatory quality of the future champion. This was perfectly proved by Nurmagomedov, whom many consider a rather uninteresting fighter. If Makhachev continues to win, but there are prerequisites for this, then in a couple of years he may well replace his teammate on the throne.

By and large, to get the title fight he needs to win two or three victories, but with one caveat. Islam is unlikely to start fighting its compatriot, so it will wait for Habib to leave the sport.