{"id":38730,"date":"2026-06-09T14:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Islam-Makhachev-shares-his-prediction-for-UFC-White-House-main-event-201474"},"modified":"2026-06-09T14:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T14:49:09","slug":"islam-makhachev-shares-his-prediction-for-ufc-white-house-main-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/islam-makhachev-shares-his-prediction-for-ufc-white-house-main-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev shares his prediction for UFC White House main event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

The lightweight title fight headlining
\nUFC Freedom 250<\/a> definitely has the attention of one man who
\nrecently held that belt.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nUFC<\/a> welterweight champ Islam
\nMakhachev<\/a>, who relinquished the lightweight title last year in
\nhis quest for a second title, recently weighed in on the upcoming
\nclash between his successor, Ilia
\nTopuria<\/a>, and interim champ Justin
\nGaethje<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an interview shared Monday by the UFC\u2019s official social media
\nchannels, Makhachev predicted that White House card will be a treat
\nfor fans. Gaethje (27-5) will enter the cage as a prohibitive
\nunderdog to the undefeated Topuria (17-0) in Sunday\u2019s main event,
\nbut Makhachev does not dismiss the American\u2019s chances. However,
\nMakhachev believes the eight-year age gap will be an advantage for
\nthe younger Topuria. Makhachev is picking \u201cEl Matador\u201d to defeat
\nGaethje. Regardless of the outcome, Makhachev believes the fight
\nwill be fan-friendly and definitely won\u2019t go the distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I\u2019m not counting Gaethje out. He\u2019s an old warhorse with
\na lot of experience. But Topuria is younger. It will be a great
\nfight for the fans. I believe this fight definitely won\u2019t go the
\ndistance. And I\u2019m leaning towards Topuria winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaethje is practically the only lightweight contender that
\nMakhachev didn\u2019t face during a stellar run that saw the Dagestani
\nwrestler go 15-1, win the title and defend it four times. While
\nMakhachev had expressed interest in the matchup, he moved up to
\nwelterweight before it could come to fruition. Meanwhile, Topuria
\nhas long been teasing a matchup against Makhachev, which is
\narguably the most anticipated matchup in recent UFC history.
\nTopuria has expressed his desire to moving up to welterweight to
\nchallenge Makhachev for the title if he defeats Gaethje.<\/p>\n

UFC Freedom 250 takes place Sunday, June 14, on the south lawn of
\nthe White House in Washington, D.C. The seven-fight card is topped
\nby the Topuria vs. Gaethje lightweight title unification bout, as
\nwell as an interim heavyweight title fight between two-division
\nformer champion Alex
\nPereira<\/a> and former interim champ Ciryl
\nGane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lightweight title fight headlining UFC Freedom 250 definitely has the attention of one man who recently held that belt. Advertisement UFC welterweight champ Islam Makhachev, who relinquished the lightweight title last year in his quest for a second title, recently weighed in on the upcoming clash between his successor, Ilia Topuria, and interim champ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}