Madison Square Garden, the site of the upcoming UFC 322 – Source: Unsplash
To hoist a UFC championship belt is to reach the apex of fighting. But to clutch two belts at once—each from a different, brutal weight class—transcends the sport entirely. It carves legends from mere mortals, forging the rarest fraternity in mixed martial arts: the UFC champ-champs. These are the fighters who stared down history, defied the odds, and rewrote the rules of achievement inside the Octagon.
One man, however, who won’t have the opportunity to become the fifth member of the champ-champ club is Islam Makhachev. Later this month, the Dagestani wrestling supremo will make the move from lightweight to welterweight in a bid to dethrone Jack Della Maddalena and become a two-weight world champion, albeit not simultaneously. Makhachev, the former 155-pound king, chose to vacate his lightweight title rather than risk keeping two burning candles alight at the same time.
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