UFC: Islam Makhachev defended his championship belt

Russian fighter Islam Makhachev defeated Brazilian Renato Moicano in the main event of the UFC 311 tournament, which took place in Inglewood (USA, California), armsport.am reports.

The fight ended in the first round when the Russian fighter successfully applied a chokehold on Moikano, who replaced Arman Tsarukyan, who suffered a back injury. Thus, Makhachev defended his UFC lightweight title for the fourth time.

Makhachev's number of victories in the UFC has reached 15. Islam is in second place in terms of undefeated record, tied with Kamaru Usman.

Only Anderson Silva (16) and Jon Jones (20) have longer winning streaks in the UFC.

Makhachev won the championship belt in October 2022 by defeating Charles Oliveira. He later defeated Alexander Volkanovsky twice and defeated Dustin Poirier in June 2024.

33-year-old Makhachev has 27 wins and one loss in mixed martial arts. Moikano has 20 wins, one draw and six losses. It should be noted that Eduard Vardanyan, the representative of Arman Tsarukyan, the number one UFC lightweight champion, spoke about the athlete's injury, which caused the cancellation of his fight with Islam Makhachev, the champion of the same weight class, scheduled for January 19. According to Vardanyan, Tsarukyan developed a back problem during active training.