Philadelphia — Welterweight champion Islam Makhachev came away with a decision victory in his first title defense at 170lbs, defeating Ian Machado Garry in the main event of UFC 330.
Following the event, Makhachev (29-1), who surpassed Anderson Silva’s win streak record with his 17th straight victory, admitted he needs to “gain some weight” to compete successfully at welterweight.
That being said, “what this fight showed me, and showed everybody, it’s not my hardest fight. It doesn’t matter how the fight’s going to go, easy or hard, from the first minute to last minute or last second, I’m going to war. I’m going to fight every second.”
At the end of Makhachev’s first welterweight title defense, title shot hopefuls Carlos Prates and Michael Morales were shown on the broadcast. When it comes to who he wants next, Makhachev stated that it didn’t matter who it was. “Maybe let them fight. Why’d they not fight on this card to see who is the number one contender? But it’s okay, I’m happy we have some real contenders in this division. And these guys, Morales, Prates, Shavkat [Rakhmonov], they make me train every day more hard, because I see these are the real fighters who can give me good fights.”
Asked to rank where the fight with Garry stood in terms of difficulty in his career, “maybe top three, bro, but the Australian fight, it’s crazy,” Makhachev replied. “[Alexander] Volkanovski’s first fight, he give me hard fight. This guy’s tough, he go forward every second, he don’t stop. That time I remember, we had a very hard time. Whole arena supported him, even if he missed a punch, the whole arena went crazy.”
Now hitting his mid-30s, Islam Makhachev doesn’t appear to be slowing down just yet. “I will stay in welterweight, and we’ll fight many years more,” he stated. That includes another go in 2026 potentially.
“We have to fight before Ramadan. January, end of the year, I have to fight. Because I’m not like 20-something, I’m 34-years old. I have to fight as soon as possible. I don’t cut much weight, I don’t have any big injuries, I just have to double check my nose, that’s it.”
Makhachev also appears annoyed with a longer than expected layoff, after a fight at the White House fell through.
“Before this fight also, I gave my approval to fight in White House,” Makhachev explained, saying he’d asked his manager for a fight there, before stating it was a long story as to why it didn’t happen. Makhachev insisted, however, that he didn’t decline a fight with Ilia Topuria and wasn’t injured, and had agreed to fight the then-lightweight champ at UFC Freedom 250.
Watch the full UFC 330 post-fight press conference with Islam Makhachev above.
