Islam Makhachev had Adin Ross amazed as he locked in a rare submission before punching him at 100 per cent during a recent stream.
The lightweight champion is just days out from UFC 311 at the Intuit Dome in California in what could be a record-breaking title defence. He faces Arman Tsarukyan in a rematch of their hastily-planned 2019 clash, with a win earning him the distinction of most lightweight title defences in history.
In one final piece of promotion for the event, the otherwise relatively quiet Russian was invited to join a Kick stream with the controversial Adin Ross. And he made the most of his time, garnering a number of hilarious clips from their interactions.
Islam Makhachev kicked out Adin Ross before stream started
For the past week, Adin Ross has been promoting a stream with UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. The social media star is known to be close with promotional boss Dana White and regularly welcomes fighters on to his stream.
However, fans were fascinated to see how he would interact with a more conservative character like Makhachev, who speaks English as a second language. And in one funny early moment, the champion kicked Ross out of their meeting room so he could pore over fight footage.
Ross appeared okay to allow Makhachev to watch the video before joining him, but he was taken aback when manager Ali Abdelaziz had him leave the room. Ultimately, he had to delay the start of the entire thing because of the issue, before eventually meeting properly with the fighter.
Islam Makhachev uses rare submission as he brutalises Adin Ross on stream
After the pair sat down and engaged in an interview of sorts, Ross asked to head into the cage where he went through some fighting moves. The multi-millionaire is infamously unathletic, and tends to end up humiliated when taking on physical tasks.
That trend continued as he was wrapped up into a twister submission, which is a move so rare that only one MMA fighter has ever landed it more than once in their career. And when Makhachev attempted to allow Ross to try and choke him, he ended up tapping out in his own right just under the champ’s weight.
They then moved on to a punching power challenge where Makhachev wore a heavy boxing glove and Ross wore extensive padding. However, he was still floored by the body shot, which was said to be 100 per cent.
“I could only imagine if I didn’t have this on,” Ross said while talking about his body protector. “I would probably break my rib.” And when his manager attempted to take the same punch, he noted that “That was crazy, that was nuts, I couldn’t breathe for like 40 [seconds].”