Because the UFC 322 most important occasion welterweight title bout between champion Jack Della Maddalena and former light-weight titleholder Islam Makhachev inches nearer, an increasing number of fighters and analysts have weighed in on the combat.
Former two-division UFC champion and UFC Corridor of Fame member Georges St-Pierre joined the record of pundits together with his prediction for the UFC 322 superfight.
“There’s a variety of elements to consider. Islam Makhachev is shifting up in weight. If you transfer up in weight and also you’re attempting to placed on muscle mass, whenever you combat, particularly the primary time, he is in all probability going to really feel like he is preventing with a backpack since you carry extra weight. Your physique is just not used to it,” St-Pierre instructed Helen Yee Sports activities.
“If the combat goes into deep waters, it would favor ‘JDM’ due to that. Islam would possibly get drained. Nonetheless, I feel, if the combat is a one-way combat and complete domination it is as a result of Islam Makhachev managed to place ‘JDM’ down with superior grappling abilities to complete him,” St-Pierre continued. “That is the 2 methods I can see this combat completed.”
Makhachev vacated his 155-pound championship to maneuver as much as the welterweight division in pursuit of a second UFC division title. He is ranked No. 2 within the pound-for-pound rankings. With a win over Della Maddalena, and reaching champ-champ standing, Makhachev would doubtless transfer again within the high pound-for-pound spot.
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“I feel I’d put Islam Makhachev within the pound-for-pound due to the competitors that he has confronted in his weight class. Now he is trying one thing very completely different. After all, if he wins, he is for positive proper now the pound-for-pound,” mentioned St-Pierre.
“He is in all probability, in my e book proper now, the pound-for-pound already. If he does it (wins the welterweight title) it can solidify his place because the pound-for-pound proper now,” the UFC Corridor of Famer continued. “I feel Islam Makhachev, in my e book, if I am completely trustworthy and non-biased, I feel he is the No. 1 pound-for-pound proper now.”
