Islam Makhachev reigns supreme as the New Year approaches, but his status as No. 1 on the Pound-for-Pound list has been tenuous, to say the least. The seemingly indomitable UFC lightweight champion entered 2024 with all of our panelists having him at the top and in his lone appearance of the past 12 months, he did enough to keep his spot with a brilliant finish of Dustin Poirier to stifle a spirited effort from “The Diamond.
” When you’ve rattled off 14 straight victories and gone without a loss since 2015, a little inactivity isn’t enough to drag you from the top of the mountain. Yet. Fortunately for Makhachev, an opportunity to remind everyone why he’s the man to beat is just around the corner.
He defends his title against Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 311 on Jan. 18. Several other notable names made strong cases to be considered No.
1 and depending who you ask (and what month you asked) you could credibly argue for Alex Pereira , Ilia Topuria , Alexandre Pantoja , and—as one particularly passionate, influential, and bald member of the MMA industry will tell you—all-time great Jon Jones , among others. So let’s look at a few of these cases with UFC having wrapped it’s calendar year, while also checking in on the women’s side where the enduring Valentina Shevchenko found a way back to her No. 1 spot.
Ilia Topuria: Four months after Makhachev’s sensational head kick knockout of Alexander Volkanovski , Topuria dusted off what was left of the longtime featherweigh.
