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Daniel Cormier believes Islam Makhachev has done enough to overtake his former nemesis Jon Jones as #1 on the pound-for-pound rankings.
Last week, Makhachev ripped into the pound-for-pound rankings for putting Jones at the top of the list after he beat Ciryl Gane.
On Saturday, Makhachev destroyed Alex Volkanovski in one round, but that apparently wasn’t enough to vault him over Jones on the pound-for-pound list.
Jon Jones remains the top pound-for-pound fighter in this week's rankings update.
Makhachev and Volk swap spots and Kamaru Usman drops to #13. pic.twitter.com/MCxRUfifKX
— Aaron Bronsteter (@aaronbronsteter) October 24, 2023
After seeing what Makachev did to Volkanovski, Cormier believes he should be named the best MMA fighter in the World.
“The way he was able to separate himself from Alex over the course of eight months — special,” Cormier said. “It was awesome to watch. He’s the best. Now people will start to wonder if he will be a better world champion that Khabib, if he’s going to be the greatest lightweight of all time.
“I don’t know (if) that’s going to happen… There’s work to be done for Makhachev to be considered the greatest of all time,” Cormier continued. “But what can’t be denied is that he is now the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the World, and why? because of the person that he just beat and the fashion that he just beat (him).”
It is worth noting that Cormier trained with Makhachev at AKA and has a long-standing feud with Jones. Despite Cormier’s relationship with Makhachev, he probably does have a point about Islam being the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the World.