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On Saturday, January 18, in the main event of UFC 311 from Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, Islam Makhachev, the Russian MMA fighter, defended his UFC Lightweight Championship successfully against Brazilian Renato Moicano. After registering a submission victory at 4:05 minutes in the first round, Islam Makhachev took a hilarious dig at his trainer and cornerman Khabib Nurmagomedov, talking about how they don’t need to train so hard for such short fights in the UFC.
Notably, Islam Makhachev was slated to defend his title against Armenian fighter Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 311, but the latter had to pull out of the fight on short notice due to his back injury. With that, the makeshift opponent for the UFC Lightweight Champion was announced on short notice as Renato Moicano stepped up after he was originally scheduled to take on American Beneil Dariush.
Everyone tell Khabib, we don’t have to train so hard for three months: Islam Makhachev
Despite being put in an advantageous position of defending his championship against a new fighter, Islam Makhachev submitted Renato Moicano with the D’Arce choke, to retain his title successfully. Shortly after, when Makhachev was making his way out of the sold out Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, he hilariously remarked, “Everyone (tell) Khabib, we don’t have to train so hard (for) three months for three minutes (of fight). One month is enough for training.”
After watching Islam Makhachev defend his UFC Lightweight Championship from the front row, Charles Oliveira praised the Russian fighter, but he didn’t take much time to call him out for the title match down the road, while stating that he is the rightful champion in the lightweight division. He said on camera in Portuguese, “It was a great fight… but I’m next and he knows that. The lightweight champion is called Charles Oliveira.”
Moreover, with Arman Tsaruykan pulling out of the title fight late on, it is likely that he is the next challenger for Islam Makhachev’s UFC Lightweight Championship.