Islam Makhachev successfully defended his welterweight title with a unanimous decision win over Ian Machado Garry in the UFC 330 main event, but the fight was anything but easy.
While Makhachev racked up a ridiculous amount of control time – over 12 minutes in total – he was never able to threaten Garry with submissions or come close to a finish outside of a shocking head kick knockdown in the second round. But with just five minutes remaining on the lock, Makhachev’s coaches knew Garry had won the third round and an ultra-close fourth round didn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence.
So rather than tell Makhachev he was cruising towards a victory, Javier Mendez and Khabib Nurmagomedov agreed to tell their fighter he had to have that fifth and final round or he might go home without a championship around his waist.
“For me, I always plan for a five-round, grueling war that I feel we’re going to win every round,” Mendez told MMA Fighting courtesy of Parimatch Online Casino. “In this particular case, it was no different. The only difference was we didn’t win every round. We definitely didn’t win the third, and the fourth round was very questionable whether we did or didn’t [win the round].
“So Khabib and I assumed let’s go the best route and let’s just say it’s 2-2. Going into the fifth round, we said we need this round. We need this round.”
Makhachev listened and he came out guns blazing with a purpose to win that fifth round. After scoring two more takedowns, and an additional three minutes of control time, Makhachev clearly did more than enough to secure the victory.
After the event was over, UFC CEO Dana White criticized Garry for not showing that same determination in the fifth round, especially knowing how close the scores could have been from the judges. White said if Garry showed even “an ounce of killer instinct” he could have potentially won the fight.
While Mendez understands why White was upset with Garry’s performance in that fifth round, he’s not as quick to discount the 28-year-old Irishman coming out and showing respect to his opponent rather than just throwing some crazy flying knee or whatever trying to end the fight.
“[Islam] came out to win that fifth round, but I’ve been in the game 30-plus years, and I’ve seen different fighters get motivated by different things that they do,” Mendez said. “Everything’s the norm. Maybe that’s how Ian gets going stronger by doing what he’s doing. I was wondering the same thing. Why did he go shake all the coaches’ hands? Why did he do this? His mindset was stuck on the game and what he was doing.
“Certain people do have a way of becoming better when they do things like that, like he’s enjoying himself. It looked to me like Ian just did that. To be honest with you, I was thinking this is going to be a tougher fight than even I anticipated with the way he came across with all that confidence, shaking all our hands. This kid, he’s coming.”
With the win, Makhachev defended his welterweight title for the first time while dispatching yet another top-ranked contender. He also broke Anderson Silva’s record for the longest win streak in UFC history with Makhachev now sitting alone with 17 victories in a row.
Prior to the fight, Mendez touted Makhachev as one of the greatest fighters of all time and his latest performance only solidified that belief. That said, the veteran coach won’t anoint Makhachev as the GOAT just yet but his latest win should put him on that short list and a couple more victories might allow him to stand alone when it comes to that eternal debate.
“I’ve said that what we need to do, this fight put him in the GOAT picture, 100 percent,” Mendez said. “Now the next two or three fights or four fights that he has, it’s going to solidify if he’s the true No. 1 or just in the GOAT picture.
“But I think if he can win his next two in good fashion—even if he just wins like this, he’s the GOAT. If he wins one or two more but not right now. Right now he’s in the GOAT picture.”
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