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Islam Makhachev coach lays out plan for three-weight UFC title bid
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Islam Makhachev's coach, Javier Mendez, is backing his fighter to become a three-weight UFC champion.
However, if Makhachev is to achieve this feat, he must navigate a certain path according to Mendez.
Makhachev firmly cemented himself as the UFC's number one pound-for-pound fighter after beating last minute replacement Renato Mocano at UFC 311 this past weekend to retain his lightweight title.
If Makhachev can continue to dominate in the Octagon, there is no reason as to why he can win UFC titles at multiple weights.
The first step to this achievement would be to challenge the current UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad, but for Mendez this is someone who he does not want Makhachev to face.
"If he wants to become a three weight champion, it's going to be if Belal loses," Mendez told DAZN News.
"But if Belal loses, you can expect Makhachev to want to go for the welterweight title 1,000%.
"If Belal stays there, I don't see him wanting to fight Belal. The fighters make the decision, we don't.
"If he wants to fight [Belal Muhammad], we have to support Islam. He's my guy, I'm his coach, Khabib is his coach. We have to support him and we will support him whatever he wants.
"When it comes to the middleweight division, absolutely. If he wants to fight there, he can do it, he has the ability to do it. Obviously it's harder at middleweight, but he could do it."
While Mendez is looking ahead to Makhachev's future, he will be focusing on Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov on Saturday night when he defends his title against Paul Hughes live in a number of regions on DAZN.
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