Is Dana White right to reject Islam Makhachev?

I got into an interesting exchange with UFC CEO Dana White in the aftermath of Islam Makhachev’s title defense against Poirier in the main event, where he finished the job with a fifth-round submission.

After White made it clear to MMA Fighting’s Jose Youngs that he thought highly of Makhachev, but didn’t think he was No. 1 pound-for-pound ahead of Jon Jones, I opted to press the issue a little bit and find out what it would take to change his rankings to get to the top spot.

White was willing to engage me when I asked why Jones, who has fought once since February 2020, gets the nod over Makhachev, who has competed eight times in that same stretch, with wins over three opponents who have been present in the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings (Poirier, Alexander Volkanovski twice and Charles Oliveira). He stood behind his belief in Jones regardless.

In the end, pound-for-pound lists are completely subjective, and in many ways meaningless. It’s been that way forever in boxing, and it’s the same in MMA. It’s an impossible metric to truly justify, and everyone is going to have different interpretations.

If White is so confident in the stance for his own list, then I’m not here to judge. There might be some flawed logic and whatnot, but it’s not necessarily worth getting worked up over, because there’s no way to fully prove an argument.

There’s a strong case for Jones to get the nod for his lengthy body of work. There’s also a great argument for Makhachev given what he’s done inside this 14-fight winning streak. The upside for Makhachev is that he is likely going to be active for much longer than Jones going forward, giving him more time to strengthen his resume and argument.

Personally, though, I would currently place Makhachev over Jones. That’s not a slight to Jones at all. I’ve been around the sport for the entirety of his UFC tenure and his accomplishments are not lost on me. However, in my own interpretation of what pound-for-pound means, recent events are important, and the names Makhachev has beaten over the past few years are unmatched.

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