Although he joined the UFC in 2015, Islam Makhachev missed out on fighting any of the lightweight legends in the promotion.
On January 18 at UFC 311, Islam Makhachev is scheduled to defend his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in a rematch six years in the making.
If the Russian is able to pick up the win, he will break the record for the most amount of title defenses in the lightweight division, as he is currently tied with Khabib Nurmagomedov, BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar, and Benson Henderson.
Islam Makhachev names Tony Ferguson as his dream opponent from UFC history
As well as the aforementioned lightweight names, the division has historically been one of the strongest in the sport and has always been extremely competitive throughout.
Nurmagomedov is considered by many to be the greatest lightweight fighter of all time, however, BJ Penn is also given his plaudits for his many years near the top of the division.
Despite that, Makhachev is quickly making a case to be considered in the conversation, having already beaten several future Hall of Famers in Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira, and Alexander Volkanovski.
However, there is one lightweight fighter the 33-year-old dreamed of fighting and he has highlighted Tony Ferguson as his dream opponent from UFC history.
Of course, ‘El Cucuy’ has a long history with Makhachev’s teammate and now coach, Khabib, as the two were booked to fight each other five times but the fight never came to fruition due to constant injuries and even a global pandemic.
“In history, honestly not from many years ago, my brother Khabib was supposed to fight Tony Ferguson like five times, they both had injuries, and the fights were canceled,” Makhachev began to explain in an interview with Adin Ross.
“My dream was to fight this guy at that moment because I was always with Khabib when Khabib had injuries I would ask my manager, ‘Hey, can I step in to fight against Tony?’ and Tony at that moment, he was like a very good athlete, a very good fighter, more than 10 fight win streak in the UFC and that was one of the fights I wanted like 3 or 4 years ago.
“He has an 8-fight losing streak, I wish him the best, a couple of years ago he was one of the high-level fighters from our division,” Makhachev admitted.
Ferguson has been pleaded with to retire by not only a large majority of the UFC fanbase and boss Dana White but also by his rival Khabib.