Unimpressed Islam Demands ‘Rocky’ Fight

Leon Edwards dominated Colby Covington to retain his welterweight title atop the UFC 296 pay-per-view (PPV) card last weekend in Las Vegas, out-striking and out-wrestling “Chaos” across the better part of five rounds en route to a fairly one-sided unanimous decision win.

Reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev was not impressed.

“Leon has to be next,” Makhachev said backstage during UFC 296. “And also, this fight is bulls—t, man. We have to change the champion.”

“I will finish both this guy,” he later added on Twitter.

Makhachev, 32, captured the lightweight crown by defeating Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 in late 2022, then made consecutive title defenses against current featherweight titleholder Alexander Volkanovski, first at UFC 284 and then again at UFC 294.

“I gave a chance to [Volkanovski], so they have to give me a chance, too,” Makhachev previously told ESPN. “I gave a chance to a guy from another division to come to my weight and to try to take this belt, and he lost. I want my chance, too.”

Doesn’t sound like UFC CEO Dana White is ready to pull the trigger.

“I had lunch with [Makhachev] a couple of days ago and we didn’t really talk about fights,” White said during the UFC 296 post-fight press conference (watch it here). “We talked about family and all kinds of other stuff. So, I don’t know. I’d like to see him stay at 155.”

That should come as a relief to this top welterweight contender, who still has competition in his own weight class.

With the holidays looming, don’t expect any major fight announcements for the next few weeks. That said, White and Co. plan to make history with the “insane” UFC 300 lineup in April, so it may be too early to rule out Edwards vs. Makhachev, or any other fight for that matter.

Stay tuned.

For complete UFC 296 results and live play-by-play updates click here. To check out the latest and greatest UFC 296 news, reactions, highlights, and more, be sure to hit up our “Edwards vs. Covington” comprehensive event archive right here.