ISLAM MAKHACHEV has made a major retirement statement just hours before UFC 322.
The Dagestani destroyer will bid to become a two-weight world champion in the main event of the MMA leader’s penultimate pay-per-view card of the year early tomorrow morning.
Makhachev’s road to double-champ status will go through Aussie assassin Jack Della Maddalena, who claimed the belt in May.
Victory over JDM will solidify the former pound-for-pound king’s status as an all-time great.
But he’d happily call it a day if his mentor, former UFC lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov, told him to hang up his gloves.
During an appearance on the Weighing In podcast, the 34-year-old said: “Khabib is like my older brother.
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“If Khabib told me, ‘Hey, you have to stop tomorrow, no more fighting,’ I would listen to him.
“He’s the guy in our gym who takes care of us, who controls us, and wish us the best.
“He knows how to make champions. Not [only] in the gym, in my life he did everything for me.”
Makhachev’s revelation comes months after Nurmagomedov revealed his good friend’s timeline for retirement.
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‘The Eagle’ said: “My honest opinion – one and a half, two years — because age is gonna be October, 34.
“Nobody gonna be same when time come. They don’t ask, “What’s your age?”
Nurmagomedov emotionally retired from MMA in October 2020, aged 32, following a second-round submission of Justin Gaethje at UFC 254.
And although he was at the peak of his powers, he admits he wouldn’t have continued fighting for much longer.
He said: “Of course, I finish when I was 32. I don’t even begin because I have this situation with my life, that’s why.
“But when you become 35, you need to stop doing this, because leave this sport for young guys.”
